like manner, the Rays of other Colours will make Rings of other Colours.
Suppose now that in a fair Day the Sun shines through a thin Cloud of
such globules of Water or Hail, and that the globules are all of the
same bigness; and the Sun seen through this Cloud shall appear
encompassed with the like concentrick Rings of Colours, and the Diameter
of the first Ring of red shall be 7-1/4 Degrees, that of the second
10-1/4 Degrees, that of the third 12 Degrees 33 Minutes. And accordingly
as the Globules of Water are bigger or less, the Rings shall be less or
bigger. This is the Theory, and Experience answers it. For in _June_
1692, I saw by reflexion in a Vessel of stagnating Water three Halos,
Crowns, or Rings of Colours about the Sun, like three little Rain-bows,
concentrick to his Body. The Colours of the first or innermost Crown
were blue next the Sun, red without, and white in the middle between the
blue and red. Those of the second Crown were purple and blue within, and
pale red without, and green in the middle. And those of the third were
pale blue within, and pale red without; these Crowns enclosed one
another immediately, so that their Colours proceeded in this continual
order from the Sun outward: blue, white, red; purple, blue, green, pale
yellow and red; pale blue, pale red. The Diameter of the second Crown
measured from the middle of the yellow and red on one side of the Sun,
to the middle of the same Colour on the other side was 9-1/3 Degrees, or
thereabouts. The Diameters of the first and third I had not time to
measure, but that of the first seemed to be about five or six Degrees,
and that of the third about twelve. The like Crowns appear sometimes
about the Moon; for in the beginning of the Year 1664, _Febr._ 19th at
Night, I saw two such Crowns about her. The Diameter of the first or
innermost was about three Degrees, and that of the second about five
Degrees and an half. Next about the Moon was a Circle of white, and next
about that the inner Crown, which was of a bluish green within next the
white, and of a yellow and red without, and next about these Colours
were blue and green on the inside of the outward Crown, and red on the
outside of it. At the same time there appear'd a Halo about 22 Degrees
35 distant from the center of the Moon. It was elliptical, and its long
Diameter was perpendicular to the Horizon, verging below farthest from
the Moon. I am told that the Moon has sometimes three or more
concentrick Crowns of Colours encompassing one another next about her
Body. The more equal the globules of Water or Ice are to one another,
the more Crowns of Colours will appear, and the Colours will be the more
lively. The Halo at the distance of 22-1/2 Degrees from the Moon is of
another sort. By its being oval and remoter from the Moon below than
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