, 1889-01-17
STUDY OF EcLIPsEs.


Wasco Sun.
STUDY OF ECLIPsEs.
A Chat with . Distinguished Astronome,
Upon the subject.
II was very much interested in the telp-
grams about the eclipse" said Mr.. j. K
Reese, professor Of astronomy at Colu mbiu
college, to New York Herald represent
atlve. "for they gave very good idea ol
what was done on January lst.
What do you mean by the path OF the
shadowY"
IF you imagine the sun to be grea,
lamp the noon comes between it and the
earth like y screen. This 10 the eclipse
But as the moon and earth keep travel.
ing in their orbits the position OF the shad.
0w Of the moon upon the surface OF
the earth varies, and the line fol.
lowed by the shadow is called its path. II
is only within it's path that the eclipse is
total. Some OF the observers went out to
look for the intermercurial planets. Mer.
curry 10 90 close TO the sun that we can only
see h,m at certain times, because the light
Of the sun blinds our eyes. Take my II.
lustration once more. and suppose the su n
to be sn electric light in the street. Nov,
suppose that there was . wax taper burn
ing within two inches OF the light, we
could not nee it. But Il We put q screen
over the light the taper would be visible.
When
THE GREAT SCREEN
OF che moon shuts OF the sun II gives q
chance TO observers to look for planets be.
tween Mercury and the sun"
what 10 the coronap'
when there 10 total eclipse Of the
sun there appears ring Of light around
the noon. This takes great many
curious forms and no Two observers have
ever quite agreed In what shape they saw
1t. IL became early apparent IN astrono-
mere that the corona was really the sun.
light reflected upon some SORT Of atmo.
sphere. IL was for . long time believed
that this atmosphere belonged to the
moon, but Miraldi in 1924 observed that
the moon traversed the corona
instead OF carrying the corona
with it. In 1851 three Grst:ciass observers
the clouds OF light seen in the
corona. and thus settled the fact that the
corona belonged to the sun.
THE modern theory Of the sun WAS put
in form by Mr.. Faye Of the Paris academy
of sciences. The sun under his theory is
to be regarded as a vast heat .radiating e
machine. The solar system OF circulation
IL directed to the transportation toward
the surface Of the heat contained within.
Verticle currents are believed to be con.
stantly bringing up portions Of the intense.
ly heated interior mass to contribute their
share in turn to the radiation into space Of
heat.
THE NATTER IN THE SUN
is believed to be in q gaseous state, al
though the gases are not in the form In
which we know them. From the enor.
nous pressure exerted upon them they are
probably OF the consistency Of honey.
"Thev are intensely hot, hotter than we
enormous pressure, and are crushed to.
gether in viscid liquid like honey. Of
course the moment this pressure Is re.
leased great explosion follows. Now,
these gases come to the surface of the sun,
their heat. expand and form the
atmosphere of the sun. From this point
the gases which form solids by combina.
lion fall back upon the sun in the form Of
rain and are once more dissociated by
heat. Outside Of this point, however,
there are glowing gases.
''ln 1859, during the eclipse on August
7th, elaborate observations were taken of
The corona with the spectroscope, and it
was found to contain iron. In 1873 Young
"
Lwo--one Of the metal, the other of coronal
gas. Tbs substance is not known in our
but it is luminous at 500, 900
miles above the surface OF the sun, and
must be considerably lighter than hydro.
gen. To sum up the result of the obser.
vations OF the five eclipses from 1860 TO
1871, it was ascertained that the corona
belongs to the sun; second, that the prom.
nences are composed of hydrogen and
,ther gases in state of incsndescences
Ind rise from an envelope some thousand,
If miles thick; third. that the corona is Of
! highly complex constitution, being made
ip in part Of glowing vapora and in part
# matter capable of rejecting sunlight.
This brings us down TO the eclipse Of
1873. The great question to be settled
lffected by the so-callsd sun spots.
The development of these spots for that
month of July was very small. The OBJ
'ervations showed that the corona was
much smaller than ii bad been before and
much reduced in brilliancy. But there was
that had never been seen before.
Two vast, family luminous wings shot out
% the direction of the ecliptio. right and
eft from the sun to distance of ut least
eu millions of miles. These were photo
yraphed and were exquisitely beautiful.
l'hs carved rays OF liRnt springing from
he sun met like the arches Of gothic vim
lows. The spectroscopic observations
Ihowed the presence Of the o0ronai gas,
in . low degree of incaridescence.
"In 1882 the sun spots were numerous
md the corona resembled that seen in
1871. There were no streamsrs like the
wings. In 1882 number OF observers
vent to Carolina Islands in the Pacific
,cean. The corona was like that of the
previous year and there were
arge number of SUI spots. Prof.
racchini found in the spectre.
cone two of the brI1ht banda