IV. On the belts of Jupiter, in a note addressed to the Secretary

Dear Sir,—The favourable position of Jupiter for scrutiny of his physical features may perhaps have already brought to the Royal Society some notice of the aspect of his belts. Whether that be so or not, I think you will readily excuse the desire I feel to lay before the Society a sketch from my equatorial, which shows the colours of several celestial objects more distinctly than I am accustomed to hear is the case with some other instruments of the achromatic class. The sketch shows the usual equatorial bands, or rather bands nearly in the usual latitudes north and south of the equator. These, to the eyes of my friends and to mine, appear not dark grey, or greyish brown, or brown, but nearly of the colour of some ochraceous sands, or the yellower parts of what is called “red” deal. Several friends to whom I have shown the planet have immediately exclaimed, “how red the bands are;” “never saw them so red before.”