New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-29
THIS MORNINGS ECLIPSE.

This is an annular eclipse, say the sages, anu
hence they care little about it. Sometimes the
earth in its orbit is near to the sun, and then
the solar surface seems larger than usual
Sometimes the orbit of the moon leads that
satellite to an unusual distance from earth,
and makes it look smaller than its average.
Should both of these contingencies occur
in an eclipse when the moon was
exactly on the central line between us and the
sun, the ring of light might remain unbrOken,
if observed from the equator, for nearly 12l2
minutes if from the latitude of Paris, nearly ten
minutes. Therein is about the only advantage
which an annuar eclipse has over a total
one, the utmost possible limits of en-
tire observation being for the
same ATTITUDES respectively, min.
SO sec. and min. 10 sec. But the chances
of people who stay at home for seeing one
of the long, valuable total eclpses, are
very small. Theory teaches lis Indeed, that
there are some 70 eclipses in every Is years
the famous Chaldean period which the Magi OBJ
served-and that Al out of the 20 are solar. But
only few of these are total and besides, the
world is wide, and eclipses strike twice
in the same spot more rarely than light
ming. The last total solar eclipse visible
in LondOn-if the fogs of November be not so
reckOned-was in 1715; the first in Berlin dur
ing this century is set down for 1887, and
Paris, less fortunate, has neither had nor will
have one from 1900 to 1900.
Total solar eclipses within the last 20
years have become of great interest and
value to astronomers, because of the
knowledge they afford of the constitution
and envelopes of the sun. The photograph
and the spectrOscOpe have chiefly aided in
this result, and American men of sci
ence have rcapcd full share of the
glories of discovery. To some of them the
corona has been crown of fame. 1t
seems strange that closer investi-
cations of this subject were not begun in
earlier years, since the corona is plainly
visible to the naked eye, and Phlos-
tratus, describing an eclipse in A. d. 90.
speaks of "a prodigy in the heavens,
"a corona resembling the Iris, that sur
Grounded the orb of the sun and
"botted it out" That it was really an
appendage of the sun, and not an illusion
of our own atmosphere, was scarcely estab
lished as fact half dozen years ago.
AS for annular eclipses, the first that
was fully observed and reported was as
late as 1887. Indeed their existence had been
doubted. though suspected, in previous years,
and the great TychO Brah6 made mistake
in his figures and declared that the apparent
size of the moon would always be sufficient
in ecipses to cover the disk of the sun. We
are wiser now, but while there is so
much light in the ring that surrounds
the moon as this morning may exhibit
the DINNER vision of chromosphere and corona
is scarcely among possibilities. On another
page a map shows the area in the United
States, where, if the weather permit, this
eclipse should be visible but very little of it will
be seen in the States bordering OH the Mississippi
Valley. The line on the earth's surface in
which the eclipse will appear as an an
nuar one, ID very narrow, and after
leaving the Massachusetts. coast it proceeds
over the Atlantic in an E. s. Z. direction, and
is drawn across Sencgambia, the Gulf of
Guinea, and Southern Africa, leaving the earth
on tho Madagascar coast. Some portion of