The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-04-30
Places Bs csn Eth Total sn Eclipse E saa.

moon,
try. occurred January 9th, 1852.
From the Washington Inteliigencer, April Isl
On the evening OF Tuesday the Let OF May the moon
win be in opposition The point whsre her orbit inter
will at this opposition be almost in line with the
tres Of the earth and The will therefore pass
nine O'Clock her east limb will enter the bra; at nine
minutes past ten she will have entered with her whole
in the mdee Of it. This will be the time Of her great
est obscuratIon. Having occupied interval Of ons
hour and minutes in proceeding thus far into
the earth's gloomy shadow, au equal Interval must
eapse before she can completely out of IT, The
time Of eclipse for tae meridian Of Washington is suf
GENTLY accurate as here giyen and that of other
place may be found BY applying to this time the number
Of hours and minutes Of difference Of longitude between
to Of Ds %
meridian The duration Of total eclipse will be about
one hour and thirty.sr minutes.
At the time of greatest eclipse, the will be in
the zenith Of port ON the earhs surface situated in
latitude lid. ON south, longitude cid. Sam west which
ding the earth into two hemapheres, in one OF which
the phenomenon will be visible but in the other inv-
s6le except ps,shance Sy those who dwell only short
the limit here to be imagined, is the periphery of
ton OF the terrestrial spheroid parallel TO this great
circle, dividing the spheroid into two unequal parts
but for the present purpose mathematical precision
may not be necessary.
The Chinese Hindooa and other inhabitants of that
section Of the earth will be excluded from the privilege
of seeing this eclipse and the millions Of Western Eu-
rope who might see it. will be asleep at the time but
upon it before retiring to rest If the atmosphere be IA
vorable.
To account for the dismal reddish color Of the
an eclipse supposed that this light part Of thst
which, being decomposed in passing through the earth
atmosphere Is rsfraoted out Of its into drec
ton towards The mon.
Observations Of lunar eclipse carefully made at va
rous stations may enable to determine difference Of
longitude but not with great accuracy for this reason
that at the junction Of the umbra with the psnumbra
the darker shade 10 softly blended with the lighter
that outline sharp enough for good observation
be perceived To diminish the uncertainty arising from
this cause it has been suggested that instead Of
cording the time of contact of the umbrs with the
moons limb, the observer should note its appulse to
Of those remarkable objects in the moons disc.
There are however, many methods Of fading differ
of longitude with very great accuracy, that obser
vatons Of lur ecpses seldom resoed to for this
purpose.
The most important result that has perhaps been
deduced from the observations of lunar ecpses is the
fact of the acceleration of the moons
mean motion. Ptolemy has recorded the day and the
hour Of eclipse Of the moon which occurred the
year I'll before Christ Ibn Juns recorded another OBJ
served at Cairo towards the close of the tenth century
These, compared with ecpses observed in our days,
prove that the moon moves more rapidly In her orbit
now Il she did two thousand years ago. The
Of this acceleiaton has been fully developed by the
great writers on Physical Astronomy.