# Observations on the Eclipse of the Sun at Chatham, April 1, 1764, by Mr. Mungo Murray: Communicated to Joseph Salvadore, Esq; F. R. S. in a Letter from Dr. John Bevis

**Author(s):** Mungo Murray, John Bevis  
**Year:** 1764  
**Journal:** Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775)  
**Volume:** 54  
**Pages:** 2 pages  
**Identifier:** jstor-105547  
**JSTOR URL:** <https://www.jstor.org/stable/105547>  

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XXXI. Observations on the Eclipse of the Sun at Chatham, April 1, 1764, by Mr. Mungo Murray: Communicated to Joseph Salvadore, Esq; F. R. S. in a Letter from Dr. John Bevis.

Sir,

Read May 24, 1764.

I Fancy I can now satisfy your curiosity as to a place in the northern limit of the path of the Moon's shadow, in the eclipse we observed at your house; that is, where the lower limbs of the Sun and Moon coincided, by the following abstract from a letter I received from my friend Mr. Mungo Murray of Chatham, a good mathematician, and author of an excellent work on ship-building.

"I am infinitely obliged to you for your kind present of the telescope glasses. I got them most curiously mounted, and, as you said, they make a 12 foot telescope, which takes in the whole Sun nearly. I set my watch by a very good vertical sun-dial, precisely at 9 o'clock, and at 8 minutes after I perceived the Moon just enter on the Sun. About half an hour after 10, the eclipse was barely annular; the light of the Sun below the Moon being but just visible, and less than a hair in the telescope. At 55 minutes past 11 the eclipse ended, and left the Sun quite round."

By this, Sir, I think you may safely conclude, that Chatham was not much more than a mile (perhaps less) south-east of the limit; which therefore passed over Rochester-bridge, or very near it.

Your most obedient humble servant,

John Bevis.