Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-08-05
TIE CITY.
THE TOTAL ECLIPSE.
The Grtai Eseat Of the Period.
Past EeIIpses and their Attendant
PhenOmena.

K
nomena in naiure-is something not often
youchsafed to US. Very few now living in
this part Of the world have ever seen one,
and it is not probable that many Of us viii
ever see another. Their appearance in the
same locality is exceedingly rare. No
total eclipse was seen 10 London from 1l49
to1724, a period of FIVE hundred and seY:i
enty-fye years. There was only one seen
in Paris in the eighteenth century, and
there will be no more till the close of the
nineteenth, period of about one hundred
and seyenty.fVe years.
The causes Of eclipse are 20 patent TO the
merest tyro in astronomy, that it becomes
q matter Of wonder thai there should have
existed such extraordinary notions concern
ing this class of phenomena among the
more intellectual ard inquisitive nations
of the past, and that they should have az
fected mems minds 80 deeply, even in the
dawn of astronomical science. To the ans
clients they were gigantic breaks into the
order of nature, terrible presages of dire
events. la Rome, at one period, the super
stitious feeling acquired such depth of
intensity that an attempt to quiet the fears
OF the populace by suggestion of natura
| causes inhamed their dread, rooted 10 a
sense Of divine displeasure, into such
frenzy Of wrath against the blasphemous
contemners of the gods as nearly to have
eliminated in a general uprising against
all the restraints of law and order.
So strong hold had this superstition on
the popular mind, that, after it came to be
believed that the observation of the sun
was owing TO the interposition of the moon
between US and that orb, lunar eclipses
were still attributed TO supernatural agen-
cies.
When the was in eclipse, all
classes turned out, and made great noise
with krazsn instruments, that they might
| give her ease in her affections. Such no.
tions have always had aWide hold on
barbarian tribes.
Stars, planets, and the satellites of
planets may suffer eclipse, but the princi-
pal ones are of the snn and moon. Tn
transits Of the lower planets across the
face Of the sun are called partial solar
eclipses, but solar eclipse proper is the
passage of the moon between the earth and
the sun. 1t may be observed of solar
eclipses, that they always occur when the
sun and moon are in conjunction, that is,
| at the time Of the new moon.
Ia one sense a solar eclipse might be
more justly entitled an eclipse of the
earth, caused BY the moons shadow falling
on it. BY process similar to that used in
measuring the length of the moons
shadow, il is discovered that the greatest
| length of the moons shadow 10 1913
| semi-dismeters of the earth, at the same
time that we know that the least distance
| of the moon from the earth is $685. SEMI
diameters. Ii is thus plain to be seen
that when a conjunction Of the sun and
4 ANOOa AaBBCho a. q AAhAC With thC Acb EtA
of the shadow and the distance of the
moon from the earth are identical, or
nearly so, with the foregoing values, the
moons shadow extends beyond the earth.
Should the shadow in these circumstances
| fall upon the earth, there will be a total
eclipse Of the sun in all places with it, or
| over which it moves.
There are some very thrilling and
strange appearances connected with solar
eclipses. 1t is not merely, in the case of a
total eclipeS, such as that of next Sat.
urday will be, that the darkness is almost
instantaneous, but il is still more impress
sive from the sirangeness of it, resembling
neither the darkness ofnigbt nor the gloom
oftwilight. This peculiar tint Of shsde,
if such an expression might be used, comes
of the following fact The cone of the
moons shadow, though il envelopes the
spectator, does not inclOse the whole at
mosphere above his horizon. The mass
of unenveloped air catches the sunlight,
and reflects it into the region of the total
eclipse, making a peculiarly solemn twi-
| light, which has no analogy IN all the APP
/ pearances of nature.
The coming eclipse is visible through
out the whole extent of the North Ameri
can continent as a partial eclipse. The
localities where it is total are confined to a
narrow belt less than $50 miles wide, ex-
tending in a sOntheasterly direction across
the continent. The partial shadow Of the
moon first touches the earth in longitude
west of Washington 1873 deg. and north
latitude 81 deg. The umbra or the total
shadow touches the earth in longitude los
deg. west of Washington, and in north
latitude SO deg. 10 other words, at the
first of these localities the dark body of
the moon ia seen to touch the sun earlier
than at any place, just as the sun is rising.
The path of the umbra, in which the
eclipse will be total, passes from Siberis
across this continent to the Atlantic ocean,
and includes within its limits portions Of
Alaska, British America, Montana, Deco.
tab, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana,
Kentucky, East Tennessee and North
Carolina. An imaginary line, drawn
Iengthwise through the middle of this
umbra, would indicate the path Of tbs
central eclipse, designating upon the earth
the various places where the center Of the
moons shadow will seem to coincide with
the center Of the sun. In st. Louis, Oma'
ha, Cairo and Knoxville, it will only for {
. moment be seen as a total eclipse; at For
Clark, Fort Union, Sioux City, Louisville
Frankfort and Raleigh it will be seer
longer, whilst at Desmoines and For
, | Connolly it will be central, or very nearly
| so.
In the year 1912 total eclipse of Thu
} sun was visible in the South of France
. Arago described it as follows:
AtPerpiguan only the sick remained
q indoors. From early dawn the peopl,
/ covered the terraces, the city ramparts, all
8 the knobs and vantage points from which
Q they could hope 10 see the sun rise. A
: the citadel we had under our eyes, be
3 sides the numerous groups of citizens, tht
: soldiers who were about TO be reviewed
D The time for the beginning of the &C ips
4 approached. Nearly 10000 person4
a smoked glass 10 hand, were scanning thu
radiant orb, now projected upon an szur
sky. Hardly had we, aided by powerful
glasses, begun to distinguish the sligh
shade obscuring the western limb of tht
. sun, when shout, the mingled sound Q
y 10000 different voices, apprised US tha