The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-03-25
THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN,
Observations to be Mudc---The Information
to be Gained,

Observations TO be Mudc-s-The InfOrmatio
TO be Gained.
The observations afforded by such an
opportunity as will be had on the 9th of
next April for noting total eclipse of
the sun, if successfully made, may mark
an important era in all future solar and
stellar physics. The practical benefits
from eclipse observations have long been
known and unconsciously realized by the
world. They serve to increase the per-
fection of our lunar and solar tables, so
necessary to the science of navigation.
They have furnished the data for deter
mining geographical longitudes and the
relative situations of different parts of
the globe. The accuracy with which
they have been predicted demonstrates
to the popular mind, by the most palpa-
BILE evidence, that there is something in
the occult science of astronomy which
can be brought home TO the most rigid
utilitarian. But the most important
scientific end aimed at, and now hoped
for. from eclipse observations, is the
analysis of the sun and the discovery of
the wonderful constitution of its fiery
mass. The study or investigation of
solar chemistry is, in itself, one of the
most interesting of all physical inquiries,
and has become doubly SO since the
spectroscope has enabled us to test the
materials in the solar atmosphere almost
as accurately asif q specimen of the suns
mass could be obtained and subjected to
chemists laboratory tests. The mind
is awed by the mysterious affinity now
known to exist between the earth and the
far off planetary bodies. 1t is discov-
cry which stamps the whole planetary
and stellar world rs of one kindred in
creation, and as coming from one crea-
tive hand. There may be many varie-
ties, but a substantial unity of constitu-
ton, and this is made more palpable to
the eye when the solar spectra reveal the
presence of metals, such as zinc and
iron, which We daily handle, existing in
an orb more than ninety millions of
miles away from us. Imagine our own
planet on fire, its entire surface glowing
as the fiery furnace, its coal beds sending
forth their stored-up energy in flames
higher than the SUBMITS of Chimborazo,
and even the rock and metallic ores vola-
tilized by the inconceivable heat, and we
have some faint image of what the sun is
and would appear to us could we ap-
proach it.
AS knowledge and reflection go on the
mystery of the suns heat, never abating
in the long lapse of ages, becomes grow
ingly darker. A few years ago the great
scientist Mayer undertook to show that
the sustained solar heat was due to
masses of meteoric bodies falling into
and supplying fuel to its fires. But Sir
William Thomson exploded that idea so
completely (by showing that, under such
a hypothesis, the suns mass ;would in
two thousand years he so lncrea. sd as to
sensibly affect the earth's revolution and
change the length of the yea9 that it
has been abandoned. The same fate has
overtaken many other solar hypotheses,
which, for time, carried all the scien-
tific world after them, and the mysteries
of the past, slightly modified by frag-
mentary discoveries, still rise up un-
solved before the most profound re-
searches of the age.
The present attempt to photograph the
eclipsed sun is to be directed mainly to
the corona, or exterior envelope of glow
ing vapor, which has been called the
solar atmosphere. The expeditionary
parties will be well prepared for their
work and enter on the field with the best
instrumental advantages ever possessed
by any eclipse expedition. The most
courteous hospitality has been offered
them by the King of Siam, through
whose dominions the moons shadowwill
make its transit, and where alone, with
the exception of a few insular stations in
the Indian ocean, the eclipse will be
visible on land. To the other instru-
mental appliances for such observations,
which have been accumulating many
years, the astronomers, now en- route for
Siam, will add the siderostat, which
gives immense effectiveness to their ap-
paratus and puts them on vantage
ground never before occupied by eclipse