But, of course, the observer must not expect enlargement to bring with it a view of new details, after a certain magnitude of image has been attained.

Still there is something instructive, I think, in occasionally getting a very magnified view of some remarkable spot.

I have often looked with enhanced feelings of awe and wonder on the gigantic image of a solar spot thrown by means of the diagonal eye-piece upon the ceiling of the observing-room.

Blurred and indistinct through over-magnifying, yet with a new meaning to me, _there_ the vast abysm lies pictured; vague imaginings of the vast and incomprehensible agencies at work in the great centre of our system crowd unbidden into my mind; and I seem to _feel_--not merely think about--the stupendous grandeur of that life-emitting orb.
To return, however, to observation:--By slightly shifting the tube, different parts of the solar disc can be brought successively upon the screen and scrutinized as readily as if they were drawn upon a chart.
"With a power of--say about 60 or 80 linear--the most minute solar spot, properly so called, that is capable of formation" (Mr.Howlett believes "they are never less than three seconds in length or breadth) will be more readily detected than by any other method," see Plate 7; "as also will any faculae, mottling, or in short, any other phenomena that may then be existing on the disc." "Drifting clouds frequently sweep by, to vary the scene, and occasionally an aerial hail- or snow-storm." Mr.
Howlett has more than once seen a distant flight of rooks pass slowly across the disc with wonderful distinctness, when the sun has been at a low altitude, and likewise, much more frequently, the rapid dash of starlings, which, very much closer at hand, frequent his church-tower." An eclipse of the sun, or a transit of an inferior planet, is also much better seen in this way than by any other method of observing the solar disc.

In Plate 7 are presented several solar spots as they have appeared to Mr.Howlett, with an instrument of moderate power.