The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-04 00:00:00

THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.

Our erratic climate has once more disappointed I
astronomers.. by the freaks which it played during
Saturday night. In the neighbourhood of the metro-
polis the atmospheric conditions were very unsatis-
factory during the progress of the eclipse, at times
the sky being quite clear, at others cloudy. Early in
the evening, as the moon rose, the few clouds
scattered about dispersed, and as the time for the
commencement of the eclipse approached there was
promise of successfully observing the whole
phenomenon. The atmosphere was so clear and the
moon so brilliant and silvery that the stars of small
magnitude were invisible to the naked eye. The
first contact of the penumbra with the lunar
surface took place at 20 minutes past eight, when a
few small clouds became visible, but they soon passed
away. To the eye, however, there was nothing to be
seen until the true shadow of the earth began to cover
the moon, the time of contact being half-past nine.
For some minutes before this, however, large masses
of cumulus clouds rose in the north-east and spread-
ing rapidly almost covered the sky, travelling to the
south-west. Almost at the instant of contact one
cloud, which seemed darker than the others, crossed
the moon, and no doubt it will have interfered
with the elaborate preparations of the astro-
nomers. To the ordinary spectator it caused
no difficulty, as our satellite was visible through
the cloud, which was not dense enough to obscure her.
Gradually the shadow extended, and the light from
the moon decreased, the sky appeared to clear about'
ten o'clock, and at 31 minutes past the hour the inner
contact was reached, and all light from the moon was
cut off, the disc appearing only as a dull reddish ball.
Although visible in the shadow of the earth those
who observed closely could see thin filmy clouds
moving to the southward, and towards eleven o'clock
they thickened quickly, and for ten minutes the
eclipse was invisible. Then, thinning again, the
clouds were just sufficiently reduced to allow of an
imperfect view of the moon in the centre of the
shadow at twenty minutes past eleven. A
few light flakes of snow floated about in the lower at-
mosphere between this time and midnight, and at nine
minutes past twelve the moon commenced to emerge
from the shadow in a clearer sky. Henceforward the
remainder of the phenomenon was more favourably
sbserved. The moon was clear of the shadow at 10
minutes past one on Sunday morning, and an hour
later the penumbra had passed off and the eclipse was
at an end. The important results which it had been
hoped would have been obtained will be marred by
the unsettled state of the sky, as it was impossible
to observe accurately the 300 stars which
passed behind the moon during the period of the
eclipse, their uncertain appearance through cloud and
haze rendering precise calculations impossible. Other
neighbourhoods, however, may have been more highly
favoured than the south-east of England, so that some
good observations will have been made throughout.
We shall have to wait nearly four years before another
total eclipse will be visible in this country, and it is to
be regretted that last Saturday's phenomenon was so
marred.
A Reuter's telegram from Moscow says that the
total etlipse of the moon was very clearly observed there
on Saturday night.