The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-06 00:00:00

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THE TOTAL ECLIPSE IN NOR WAY.
The Scotsman of Saturday last contains an inte-
resting communication from the Astronomer-Royal
for Scotland, who proceeded to the western coast of
Norway, for the express purpose of witnessing the
solar eclipse of July 28. This account of the re-
markable phenomenon is important, not only as
being the first which has appeared in this coun-
try from any quarter in which the eclipse was
total, but as being probably the only account which
we shall have from all that part of the line of com-
plete obscuration, bad weather seeming to prevail
everywhere else in the neighbourhood, which was,
moreover, one that could hardly have been reached
but for the unusual assistance which was obtained in
the present case. The paper is as follows :
" After all that has lately appeared in print in va-
rious places, it is perhaps hardly necessary to refer to
the extreme importance of a total eclipse being ob-
served at that narrow strip of the earth's surface where
it is quite total. There it is everything, elsewhere it
is nothing. That is, there, 41 darkness approaching to
that of night is experienced, and a host of interesting
phenomena then, and then only, reveal themselves,
and furnish the only clue, which we can ever
hope for, to the physical nature of the light and heat
giving surface of our sun, with the state of which the
Whole of our well-being is so intimately bound up.
But slsewhere than on that contracted line, but 100
or 150 miles broad, though the eclipse be a large one',
stilt if the smallest particle of the sun's disc be left
Ithobseured, there is still the brightness of day, and'
none of those phenomena are displayed.
" places where an eclipse will be total, are, in
the present state of astronomy, easily and accurately
computed beforehand, so that observers may choose
their etations with certainty. After full considera-
tion of what was preparing, and was likely to be done
elsewhere, there seemed a probability of the western
coast of Norway being less effectively occupied than
any other part of the line ; by reason, probably, of its
inaccessible nature caused by the absence of any di
rest means of public conveyance by sea or land. But,
at the same time, the eclipse happening earlier there
than in any other part of Europe, would render it, in
!o far, the most eligible station of all. A representa-
tion was therefore made by the Astronomer Royal far
Scotland to the Commissioners for Northern Light-
. • hou
• to
ss on the important results which might accrue
.`o the science of astronomy from the total eclipse being
well observed on the western coast of Norway, and the
Commissioners, with their usual readiness to do all that
they •
fairly and properly could towards the promo-
'cm of science, without detriment to their own imme-
diate interests, examined their programme of work
for the season, and finding that their steam-vessel
wOuld,be, employed at almost the very time of the
eclipse on a point in .the Shetland Isles, only 20 hours
'distant from the desired part of the coast of Norway,
'kindly expressed their readiness to concur in
the general object proposed, so far as the means
of conveyance were concerned. The next step,
.therefere, to insure this liberality being turned to
good: account, was to provide a sufficiency of ob-
servers and of instruments. The former requisite
was eisiiiently secured by the Rev. Dr. Robinson,
the well-known astronomer of the Armagh Observe-
, tory, having engaged to join the party, and to him
the general direction was unanimously awarded.
The latter desideratum was supplied by making
application to the Hydrographic Department of
!the Admiralty, which, in the person of
its chief, Sir F. Beaufort, not only offered
%the loan of any of the royal navy's surveying
instruments, thus rendering the Scottish expedition
More complete in this respect than perhaps any
other, but prevailed on the Board of Admiralty to
'procure through the Swedish ambassador, from the
Governor General of Norway, full leave for the party
Ito land with their instruments on any part they
pleased of the coast of Norway, of which, moreover,
he procured an accurate manuscript chart.
" These matters, therefore, being arranged, the as-
urouttnuical party being taken on board as the vessel
passed on its way to the Shetland Isles, and the in-
aanection of the light-houses there being completed,
ft_ rapid run was successively accomplished to the
Norwegian shore, and a station was selected on one
of the outlying Bue Islands in lat. 61 degrees 20
7 centre of
This position not only placed us in the
of the line of shadow, but gave us a clear
horizon in
the direction of the sun at the
-time of the eclipse, and removed us suffi-
:fiently far from the great meridian chain of moun-
-Ihl'running along the western coast of Norway,
'l'cl 'gathering about them that morning a multitude of
`'l°ll c's to make up, as it seemed, by an unprecedented
3,i
fyr the uousally long apace of uninter-
-11l ' floe weather, which had been-experienced before
arrivtil. The instruments were landed at an
:tall: LW', and there were sufficient glimpses of the
Inn through the clouds to obtain the necessary
l'servatiens for time and for latitude, and before
„10;%ereninencement of the eclipse each observer was
off with his instruments prepared, and with a code
instructions. These, too, were so arranged that by
"'vision of labour it was hoped that, although the im-
Portant part of the eclipse was of so short a duration,
and the number of phenomena to be noted so many
and various—that yet none of them, whether refer •
'ring to the purely astronomical bearings of the case,
ocosmical or terrestrial physics, could be
.7eil lost sight of—that is, weather only permit-
l',ll3l?, but this was by no means so favourable as could
"a:7e been wished. Still, however, the commencement
of the
eclipse was very fairly observed, and sufficient
teatseen during its progress to enable the observers
take accurate notes of some spots on the sun,
,11,134 of mountains on the edge of the moon, so as to
be prepared to state their degrees of connexion, as
'regards place, to those wondrous tongues of light,
arid the variations of the corona, the most inexpli-
cable, and the most important of all the phenomena
presented during a total eclipse. Further, the in-
atantof complete obscuration was observed very ac-
curately, and some interesting features were re-
marked, tending to explain anomalies perceived in
!ornier total eclipses, and indicating a rapid fluctuation
1.4. the degree of brightness of the sun's surface. Inane-
d..iately after this, however, the clouds became so very
ishio.k that the emersion of the sun was not seen at all,
and heavy rain beginning soon after, continued through
the
rest of the evening. But the terrestrial pheno-
Mena, to which more attention could be turned, on
the loss of the celestial ones, were of a nature abun-
dantly sufficient to satisfy any soul capable of entering
into anci
tm
appreciating the ful and the sublime. As
totality approached, the air felt sensibly colder at
every moment, and the darkness plainly increased;
the
clouds seemed to lower, and under the sun was
seen an appearance of rushing descending streams
of them ; while the .
their noise to be gith_erSienag-btardrosunadppetahreedrocbkys
for their nightly rest or .for shelter. The difference
of illumination had also become very marked on the
Mountains at different distances, those far from us
being brought out with a vividness and distinctness
which made our own increasing gloom the more ob-
servable. Suddenly, at the moment of totality, the
Nvery extremity of darkness seemed to fall upon us.
ot so, however, absolutely, for the rain clouds which
Closed in the greater part of the horizon leftope rtiwao
!strip of sky extending from N • V . to E.N.E., and
or three degrees high, and which at this moment
became of a dark lurid orange colour, verging from
Fed on one side to greenish on the other, and enabled
48 barely to see each other by a faint unearthly sort
it3f light ; small hand lamps 50 or 60 yards off in a
their
were as visible as in a dark night, and with
."e,ir red colour, contrasting strangely with the gene-
ill". green hue of everything immediately around. But
unla,Pnearance of the country seen through that lurid
117,41T'g under the clouds was the most appalling.
ritetiehin.s,tabnyding in the centre of the shadow, we
reason of their great height, see the
tn_tant peaks of the lofty Jostedals and Dovrefjeld
deostie:talue, still illuminated by the rays of the sun
shut udwg upon them from on high, but we were
out •
to the
fu PP
outer darkness. Some approximation
opptotiNsarance might be obtained by watching the
torch fx,otu 1 Y of a. similar configuration of clouds in the
night, but Alton Hill during a midsummer's mi-
dneverrbtksB:4lit would be only an approximation, for
earth and we observed all the lights of heaven
21104 the si° entirely confined to one narrow strip
hue, and °ln, never that peculiar greenish
re place nevernf that appearance of outer darkness in
,in the
Hated
eashTs
- observation, and of excessive distance
by tee verge of the horizon (caused in this case
there being more highly illumi-
eclipsed they receded, by a less and less
they are, on
; while in a morning or evening sky
'el on the contrary, most in the shade, and
therefore7,hitoitinghtlabroeedark and unnaturally thrown forward).
of us were unmoved with gratitude at
thous% been allowed to witness such a spectacle,
teaellin we Should have been glad to have enjoyed its
bee..
alarmed
fora longer space of time, and should have
and
with indeed, if it had not happened as it did,
Thai with such wonderful accuracy to the computed
e' yet a certain feeling of relief was experienced
yello Iyhen the lurid.
streak in the sky suddenly changed to
I:hehseen, the clouds brightened up, and the dark-
ness seemed % east
„.. to be wafted visibly away to the south-
a-birds that had stopped their screaming
1\i-tiring the darkness now re-appeared ; but the wild
orseme- of
n those rocky isles, who had congregated
the'uereT.usly around us during the commencement of
they, s 4Pses when the light returned, where were
thinking/ one to hide themselves in their huts,
that they were in the jaws
.of
destruction,imd
iu
amongst the stones of darkness
after the
,s Ine shadow of death. Such we heard
ttieng
theil was the general feeling amongst them all
tour ti coast, even beyond the limits of total 03-•
a on- Horses and oxen began to wend their
but eward and poultry
"n farmer f
fle I took place when thteofofiwy
eonfusiot n ormed us that an amusing scene
luspftooutnhsir roosts
of
dark-
getss conning on so quickly that the• y codultdhenotal
Placed
heir perches „ on t
in thus and then,