_Venus as a Telescopic Object._—When the telescope is directed to Venus it must be admitted that the result hardly justifies the anticipation. Observers are led to believe, from the beauty of her aspect as viewed with the unaided eye, that instrumental power will greatly enhance the picture and reveal more striking appearances than are displayed on less conspicuous planets. But the hope is illusive. The lustre of Venus is so strong at night that her disk is rarely defined with satisfactory clearness; there is generally a large amount of glare surrounding it, and our instruments undergo a severe ordeal when their capacities are tested upon this planet. Observations should be undertaken in the daytime, or near the times of sunrise or sunset, when the refulgence of this object does not exert itself in extreme degree. But putting aside the question of definition for the moment, there are other circumstances which conspire to render the view a somewhat unattractive one. There are no dark spots, of bold outline, such as we may plainly discern on Mars, visible on her surface. There is no wonderful arrangement of luminous rings, such as encircle Saturn. There are no signs of dark variegated belts, similar to those which gird both Jupiter and Saturn; nor is there any system of attendant satellites, such as accompany each of the superior planets. But though Venus is wanting in these respects, she may yet boast an attraction which the outer planets can never display to us, namely, the beautiful crescented phase, which, tradition says, was predicted by Copernicus, and, when afterwards observed in Galilei’s telescope, justly considered a convincing fact in support of the Copernican system. The phases are best seen in strong twilight, whenever Venus is favourably situated. It has been asserted that the crescent of this planet has been distinguished with the naked eye; but the statement is undoubtedly erroneous. Any small glass will show it, however, as it is sometimes well visible when subtending an angle of 50″ or 55″.