Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-09-24
THE MOON ~ SHADOW.
Clouds and Dark Ven Partially OBJ
scure Old Luna's Face.

Old Luna had a clear, bright sky in the
early part of last night in which to ex-
hlbit herself in mourning. 1t was 12:45
a. m. before the shadow was perceived to
begin moving down over the sphere, and
1t was three hours later before the dark
veil had passed entirely OF the old
mans face.
The middle of the eclipse was about 9
o'clock. The shadow began moving across
the moon from the northeast limb. With
the exception of the police, night watch
men and few amateur astronomers the
phenomenon had few spectators. Be-
tween 1 and o'clock the sky became
cloudy and almost hid the moons face
IRON view.
Eclipses have ever been considered by
astronomers as among the most interest
ing of celestial phenomena. In the past
they were regarded with great awe by the
supersutlOus. Every schoOlbOy knows
the story about Columbus foOling the SIM
ple-minded Indians and saving his own
and his crews scalps by his eclipse yarn.
If the moon had failed to eclipse that
night, the great and adventurous skipper
would have been in a bad fix, and, even
as 1t was, he had close call. When
eclipses first began to be understood and
calculated is unknown. Some 1861 years
before Q. Columbus told the eclipse
story TO the red skins, or in
the year 2l69 b. G., the cruel
cross-eyed Emperor Of China, Chow
kang, condemned his two chief astrOno-
mers, HO and Hi, to death because they
made a mistake in calculation, or forgot
to announce an eclipse of the sun. For
some years thereafter astronomy was I'M
popular with the students OF the FlOwery
Kingdom.
In one Of the cities Of Persia conquered
by Alexander the Great, $50 b. c., were
found calculations of eclipses extending
back for centuries Occultations and
transits Of planets are virtually the same
as eclipses, and have always been care
fully watched and studied by astrOno-
mers, who, from data gathered from their
observations, are enabled to calculate
the distances of planets.
An eclipse of the moon is caused b.,
the shadow of the earth falling on Luna
and Obscurlng her face, whether wholly
or partially. An eclipse of the moon
cannot occur except when the earth gets
between her and the sun and shuts off the
light from the latter. In lunar eclipses the
shadow of the earth seldom falls very
nearly centrally up0n the moon; vet,
owing to its breadth at the mO7n's dis
lance, the moon is often totally immersed
in the shadow. When this happens it is
called total lunar eclipse. When the
moon passes only in part into the earth 5
true shadow, as 1t did last night, the phe-
nomenOn is called partial lunar eclipse.
Usually the moon in the heart OF the
earth's shadow presents a dark red or
cOpper-cOlored disc. Ii is believed that
the light which thus Eliminates her is
sunlight, which has undergone refracton
bY the cartl'S atmOgDlprp.
1t is dem0nstrable that If the moon is
! centrally eclipsed, even when she Is near
est the earth, a visual line from any point
ofthe moon at tangent to the eartn's globe
would be 30 bent by refractiOn In passing
through the earths atmosphere as to
/ reach the SUMS disc, so that an inhaDitant
ct the moon would see ring Of re-
Elected sunlight all round the earth's disc
! during one OF these total eclipses.
But this would not happen il all those
parts % the terrestrial atmosphere which
bOrdered on the earth's visible half were
cloud-laden. This Is believed to be the
reason why occasionally the moon dis
appears wholly from view when totally
/ eclipsed.