noon
It might be observed to turn upon its own axis in twenty-three hours twenty-one minutes -- an evidence , from the unaltered duration of its days , that the planet had not shared in the disturbance . On its disc the clouds formed from its atmospheric vapor were plainly perceptible , as also were the seven spots , which , according to Bianchini , are a chain of seas . It was now visible in broad daylight . Buonaparte , when under the Directory , once had his attention called to Venus at noon , and immediately hailed it joyfully , recognizing it as his own peculiar star in the ascendant . Captain Servadac , it may well be imagined , did not experience the same gratifying emotion . On the 20th , the distance between the two bodies had again sensibly diminished . The captain had ceased to be surprised that no vessel had been sent to rescue himself and his companion from their strange imprisonment ; the governor general and the minister of war were doubtless far differently occupied , and their interests far otherwise engrossed .