The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-29 00:00:00

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

A sad disappointment yesterday awaited the learned
and scientific, as well as the lovers of the marvellous,
who had anticipated the gratification of witnessing the
rare and interesting spectacle of an almost total eclipse
of the sun. It is a subject of no ordinary regret, that
the unpropitious and clouded state of the heavens
should have denied to the vast multitude of metropo-
litan observers who were 'preparing to profit by an
event so seldom occurring, and yet so replete with
matter for contemplation and instruction, the opportu-
nity for turning it to intellectual account. There is
no question that the celestial phenomenon which oc-
curred yesterday belongs to a class which, more than
any other, tends to realise to ordinary apprehensions
the great truths of astronomical science. An eclipse,
beyond all other marvels, serves the purpose, as it
were, of a popular demonstration of the accuracy of
those wonderful calculations by which the movements
of the heavenly bodies are ascertained for hundreds of
years beforehand, and laid down with unerring cer-
tainty and precision. Most persons must have experi-
enced the vague and misty effect occasionally produced
on the mind by reading or listening to astronomical
lectures, in which not only millions of miles, but distances
altogether immeasurable and indefinite, are talked of with
a familiarity that often amazes still more than it enlightens,
leaving the mind ultimately in a mere state of confusion
and bewilderment. We are not sure, indeed, that a
doubt is not sometimes suggested, whether the grave-
looking gentleman who propounds such astounding reve-
lations touching the motions of the vast bodies in space—
"Cycle on epicycle, orb on orb"—
. .

is not under a dreamy and mysterious delusion, and pre-
tending to tell us infinitely more than he really knows,
or, if put to the test, would be able to prove. Certainly,
to the popular mind, there is all the difference in the
world between giving perchance a listless ear to the re-
lation of such marvels, and the palpable evidence pre-
sented to their sight by the actual occurrence. Tho
maxim of Horace—

" Segnius irritant animum demissa per aurem,
Quetta quse sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus"—
will apply to the facts of astronomy at least as felici-
tously as to any others coming within the range of the
senses. The truthfulness of these profound deductions is
by such evidence removed from the dim and distant re-
gion of theory to the sphere of undeniable fact, and the
mind is gradually prepared to grapple with and admit
the other truths of this sublime science. Instead of being
viewed, as formerly, by our ancestors as the forerunner
of plague, pestilence, and famine, may not an eclipse
rather be regarded as one of the grandest of astrono-
mical lectures, delivered by Nature herself, with the
human race for an auditory, the heavens for a theatre,
and the sun and moon as the philosophical apparatus by
which her operations are illustrated?
On the effect of such a phenomenon in ancient, and
even in more recent times, on the minds of men, nay of
whole nations—arising from the groundless, though per-
haps not altogether unnatural, superstition that con-
nected those purely physical effects with impending evil
and the wrath of heaven—we need not now dilate. With
the advance of science and the abundance of information
daily diffused at our public institutions, in a popular
though philosophical form, such unfounded alarms have
vanished like owls at the approach of daylight; and the
announcement of an eclipse, instead of driving our
worthy citizens to their cellars for refuge against the an-
ticipated horrors attending it, serves rather to attract
them to every spot where it may be seen to the best ad-
vantage.

The dubious appearance in the early part of the day,
and the cloudy and more threatening aspect it after-
wards assumed, doubtless prevented many otherwise
eager sight-seers from availing themselves of those lo•
calities which are sufficiently convenient for the less
curious or less favoured mortals, who have neither the
desire nor the means of transporting themselves from
Marylebone or Cheapside to Christiana, Konigsberg, or
elsewhere, in the zone within whose range the luxury of
a total eclipse was doubtless enjoyed. On Nunhead-hill,
however, and other elevated spots in the vicinity of the
metropolis, a few stray observers were stationed, de-
sirous, like ourselves, of witnessing the effect of the pre-
dicted obscuration on the surrounding country; but as
far as the purpose of observation was concerned, we
might as well have confined our astronomic survey to
the precincts of our own dwelling. We confess to having
expected to see a liberal sprinkling of peripatetic
Galileos proffering their tubes for a moderate charge, or
troops of amateur astronomers-royal learnedly sweeping
the sky through the medium of pieces of smoked and co-
loured glass.
At Greenwich the gathering was at first considerable
but scarcely so great as might have been expected. The
Astronomer Royal at Fredericksvaem, Mr. Hind at
Gothenburg, most of our men of scientific eminence
abroad—the Observatory itself was deserted; whilst
many of the mere sight-seers who early in the day oc-
cupied the hill, being disheartened by the clouds, or
damped by the rain, left prematurely in despair of be-
holding the phenomenon which they had hoped to view.
And the result, it must be confessed, did not belie the
wisdom of the philosophers nor falsify the instincts of
their disciples ; for whatever may have been wit-
nessed by the professors who have gone to Sweden
and Norway, no important observations were made
by their deputies whom they left here. The un-
learned felt, therefore, some disappointment. In the
first place, the weather was most unfortunately hostile
to the wishes of the amateur watchers, clouds impeding
their view, and following each other in such rapid
succession as to forbid more than a glance, and to
refuse time for anything like a sufficient observation; in
the second, the coincident appearances were by no means
so extraordinary as had been predicted—in short, they
were not, to the unassisted vision, extraordinary at all.
The actual mathematical certainties of course came true.
The eclipse was duly noticed, and, as far as visible, veri-
fied to the letter the calculations on which it had been
announced. Between 2.20 F.M. and 2.25 it was first re-
marked; at 3,5 it might, for a moment or two, be well
seen; but at 3.10, the greatest phase, it was lost to sight
altogether. But the wonders of 1842 were not reported;
the " fairy tales of science," as Tennyson, borrowing
from Lord Brougham, has phrased it, proved themselves
mere fictions. Yet the English still love the marvellous,
though they have ceased to fear it. Fur upwards of two
hours the scrutiny continued, apparently with but little
result. To the naked eye, however, the clouds, which
were obstacles to those provided with the necessary op-
tical instruments, were occasionally an assistance, as the
lighter of them answered particularly well the purpose
to which smoked glasses are generally applied, and
helped to heighten the effect which, to some extent, they
had produced. Atmospheric changes worthy of note
there were none; the wind blew slightly till the rain
fell, and then moderated, as in the ordinary course of
things it naturally would. Such wore all the observa-
tions which, outside, it was possible to make; unfortu-
tunately, in the absence of Professor Airey, there was
no information from within our national observatory to
be had—a circumstance which the professor might have
prevented, and which the public will regret.
Vesicles the naturally elevated positions of which we
have spoken, those which art has raised were generally
occupied for the °wagon. On the Monument end from

-- •

St. Paul's many contemplated the spectacle, whilst others
of the citizens, averse to extravagance, availed them-
selves of Tower-hill, as an accessible situation, combin-
ing general economy with its local advantages.
At Highgate, as elsewhere, there was scarcely a per-
ceptible change in the appearance of the day throughout
the whole period of the duration of the eclipse. A
slight darkness did, it is true, come on about ten minutes
before three, and lasted some thirty or forty minutes,
but so trivial was the amount of additional obscurity,
that but for the knowledge that the sun's disc was at
that time actually being eclipsed, we venture to say
that the change would have passed almost, if not en-
tirely, unnoticed by unscientific eyes. The weather for
some time previously had threatened rain, while sombre
masses of clouds of various forms and hues slowly
drifted up, until the whole face of the sky was more or
less covered, and a dense mist, as the rain continued at
intervals to fall, graduall'oecupied the lower districts.
About the time of the commencement of the phenomenon
a slight degree of sultriness was apparent, which, how-
ever, wag succeeded in about thirty minutes by a de-
cided fall in the temperature. The only peculiarity in
the appearance of the sky was a vast cloud running for
many mires perfectly parallel to the horizon, and at no
great elevation, the sharply defined and lurid outline of
which strongly contrasted with the narrow strip of light
grey ♦apour of corresponding extent.
In Manchester and other parts of the country, from
which we have accounts, the phenomenon proved to be
comparatively a failure, through the inauspiciousness of
the weather. &t the time of the junction of the shadow
with the sun's disc, rain fell in a deluge, and the heavens
were overcast for a considerable time. The sun was
subsequently seen when the shadow had passed a Con-
siderable space over the face of the orb, but fieeti❑g
clouds of darkness soon intercepted the vision, and it was
but seldom it appeared for more than a minute without
some untoward interruption. At the period cf the close
of the phenomenon the sky was quite overcast, and not
a vestige of the tun was to be seen. There was no dark-
ness beyond that which was caused by the threatening
clouds.

Beyond those atmospheric appearances there was no-
thing to indicate to the unaided vision that one of the
most singular results of the laws that govern the bodies
composing our solar system was at that moment being
produced. In fact, the whole spectacle, if such it might
be termed when so little was to be seen, was provok-
ingly deficient in all that was marvellous or even
striking. No sign of anything unusual in the economy
of the heavenly bodies was visible from the locality we
have mentioned, save at about twenty minutes before four
o'clock, when a faint glimmering in the sky exhibited for
a moment the sun's pale and watery disc, shorn of half
his size and all his splendour; but in another instant the
clouds again closed over it, and remorselessly denied a
second glimpse. How it happened that, in spite of the
haziness and clouds, which would of themselves tend to
obstruct the sun's rays, and thus increase the darkness
arising from any other source, the obscuration of
82-100ths, or nearly 9-10ths of its surface, assuming the
correctness of the calculation, should have produced so
inconsiderable a diminution of light, is a problem which
we will not attempt to solve.
Last evening, at the Polytechnic Institution, Dr. Bach-
hoffner repeated the interesting and instructive lecture
on the solar eclipse which he has lately delivered at this
institution, combining therewith the result of his actual
observations during its progress. He stated that he had
been unable to observe it with any degree of accuracy
for more than a few moments at brief intervals, before
the highest degree of obscuration had been attained—in
this respect being no more fortunate than less scientific,
though, doubtless, equally curious spectators. The num-
ber of his auditors, and the attention with which the
lecture was listened to, betokened the interest felt in the
subject, despite the untoward circumstances which had
attended its development.
A lecture, accompanied by illuminated diagrams illus-
trative of the expected appearance of the eclipse, was
delivered by Major Parlby, at the Gallery of Arts,
Sloane-street, where arrangements were made for view-
ing its progress, after the lecture, in the garden at the
rear of the house, through a telescope stationed there for
the accommodation of the auditory. After what we have
stated, however, it is needless to mention that the effect
of the arrangement was almost neutralized by the adverse
skyey influences above referred to. Nevertheless,
at times, for a few moments, the shadow of
the intervening body was clearly defined through the
fast-moving clouds that passed over the sun's face,
sufficient to give a correct though fleeting idea of the
effect actually produced. These fitful appearances, it
should be stated, occurred prior to the greatest degree
of obscuration being reached, for, after that period, the
darkening clouds presented an impenetrable barrier to
further observation until nearly the close of the phe-
nomenon. Notwithstanding the obstacles which have
marred the success of home-observation, there can be
no doubt, from the careful arrangements that have been
adopted by numerous savans, British and foreign, who
either reside in, or have purposely visited the regions
whero the eclipse will be fully visible, that we shall
speedily receive the fullest and most accurate descrip-
tion of its attendant phenomena that science can furnish.
—Chronicle.

COURT CIRCULAR.
OSBORNE, MONDAY.

Her Majesty, his Royal Highness Prince Albert, with
the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Kent, attended Divine service
,yesterday morning at Whippingham Church.
The usual suite was in attendance on the Queen and
Prince, and Lady Augusta Bruce, Lady in Waiting in
attendance on her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent.
The service was performed by the Hon. and Rev. F.
P. Bouverie.
Sir James Clark arrived in the afternoon from London.

Earl Granville remained on a visit, and had the honour.
with Sir James Clark, or being included in the Royal
party at dinner.

Mr. Lemaitre had an interview with Lord John Rua-
sell yesterday, at his official residence in Downing-street,
Earl Granville arrived in town yesterday from Osborne,
The Marquis of Lansdowne returned to town yester-
day.
Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office from the governors of the North American colonies.