The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-05-08 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENON.

TIN minds of local astronomers have bele much
exeredesi by the unusual solar phenomenon of last
Saturday. It Is described by scientists as • " perbildioa"
or mock sun. Appearing under the most favourable
circumstances it presented • striking and beaufAll
eight, and a emcee of mach speeulstios sad eves
alarm in the minds of many, Indeed it is
reported,
but for the truth of It we cannot vouch,t
Dorchester when two oountry woman caught sight
of the fearful phenomenon, they hastily fell on mak
knees in prayer, having, ot doubt, • Wood impreseloc
that the crack of doom had come. They soon, how.
ever, real eri that this workaday world arm not me
ended, from the fact that they were causing an obstroo.
tioo, and wore ordered off by the police. We CM oely
think that religion. fears were not the sole cause of
their strange 000 duct Dr. Drew (Weymouth) writes
as follows on the subject:—
On Saturday last at soon • very unusual pbesommion
—• solar iris or halo—of greet brilliancy appeared for
the sperm of about forty-Sri Minutia, wiliek not only
attracted unleash' attester', but, to • certain mast
with some timid people, IrliVe rise to feelings of awe
sad alarm. I ray en unusual phenomenoo, from the
feat that them beautiful and hitereatiag apeoreolles are
very seldom seen at soon, but more geeerally in the
moraine, when the ens is between ten arid thirty
degrees above the horizon, and also In the @resift,
when it is thou: the mine height in the western sky.
Lunar halos very frequeutty appear, and occasionally
they sre observed round some of the more important
stars, but, although solar balm are ea frequent as lunar
halm, it is only at long intervals that the condition@
of the atmosphere. in daylirht, permit their becoming
visible. They are supp reed to indicate a change 0/
weather—from dry to moist—end rain weal!, falls
within twenty.four hour. of their appearanee, and
especially so if the wind should be in a south or south.
west direction at the time. To. mu.* of them pliecomena
may be thus explalned :—Wheu a stratum of ()load—
charged with • certain amount id aqueous vapour—
internees betwean toe ien or moon and the °beaver, M
an altitude of • few mile' above ths earth, th.• rays of
the sna or moon lo axone coorientrated by nfiectioa,
and a halo is formed in this mast stratum of the
atmosphere, and usually It becomes visible. The
coloured trio on Saturday hot wss very brilliant, and
It was accompanied by • Iwo .nd ery or uffeeted halo of
a spectral hoe—not am as inside or outside circle of
the true halo—but linked through the centre, the inner
periphery peering throuah the sun and the outer
extending is a nortiv.weet direction. Thai pcyttaciu
ldnd OIsO nisei halo appears to be • very unusoal
moo imp minaret of • solar Oslo; personaliy, I have
never read or board of one being Observed. The one
of Saturday teat, h wever, was evidently need by •
second, but distinct, stratum of acclaimed sapcm,
situated In Esther an oblique direction to the MD, and
lower down in the atmosphere, which would account
for the red oted iris appearing so much larger than the
true one. We artainly saw the halo of &turd lest
under the most favourable a editions such a phew-
minion could be observed, but the axiom "There I. no
rule without an exoeptioc " here comes an to upset a
favourite the ,ry—that coin is sure ii follow a *der or
lunar halo, especially if the wind should be in the west
or south-west at the Lima, for, although the wind as
Saturday was in the letter quarter wing the a
mos. the 24 hours passed away and no rain fell In