Presuming an observer to have his 3-or 4-inch telescope duly fitted with a solar diagonal and tinted glass, he may naturally ask, after his curiosity has been satisfied by the contemplation of his first sun-spot, what he can do further: What special features is he to look for? What changes ought to be recorded? What are the doubtful points that require to be cleared up as regards the Sun’s physical appearance? In what way are new and novel facts likely to be glimpsed? In a word, he desires to know in what manner he may employ his eyes and instrument usefully for science, while also gaining pleasure for himself. Information like this is often needed by the young student, and sometimes indeed by men who have already gained a little experience, and who possess much larger instruments than we have intimated above. In endeavouring to offer suggestions in response to such inquiries, I would remark that the nature and direction of a research essentially depend upon several conditions, viz. the observer’s inclination, his instrumental equipment, his place of observation, and the amount of time he can devote to the pursuit of his object. There are very few men who, like Schwabe of Dessau, will confront the Sun on nearly every day for more than forty years in order to learn something of its secrets. Such extraordinary pertinacity is fortunately not required, except in special cases. Amateurs may effect much valuable work in the short intervals which many of them steal either from business or domestic ties and offer at the shrine of astronomy.
There are quite a considerable number of attractive phenomena and features on which the solar observer will find ample employment, and to the principal of these it may be as well to make individual references.
_Eclipses of the Sun._—These phenomena deservedly rank amongst the most important and impressive events displayed by the heavenly bodies, and they are specially interesting to the possessors of small telescopes. Solar eclipses have been so often made the subject of observation and discussion, that our knowledge of the appearances presented may be considered to be nearly complete. The various aspects of Nature on such occasions have been so attentively studied in their manifold bearings, that virtually nothing remains for the ordinary observer but to reexamine and corroborate facts already well ascertained. He can expect to glean few materials in a field where a plentiful harvest has just been reaped. But the eclipsed Sun, if it has revealed most of its secrets to previous investigators, has certainly not declined in attractiveness; and the amateur will find the spectacle still capable of exhibiting features which, though not full of the charms of novelty, will be sufficiently striking and diversified to be remembered long after the event has passed.