The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-01-09
The Solar Eclipse.


swept in northeasterly direction across
California, Nevada, Idaho and Mon
tana. AT the boundary line between
California and Nevada the path of
darkness was about one hundred miles
wide. Within this shadow belt the
astronomers had taken their stations at
various points along its course, and
every preparation had been made for
noting the duration of the eclipse and
taking photographs of the solar corona.
The most successful and extensive
observations were made at the Harvard
station at Willow, Cal, where fourteen
telescopes and cameras and eight spec
troscopes were employed. The at
mosphercal conditions were perfect,
the sky being clear at nearly all points.
The Harvard station was in charge of
Professor w. II. Pickering. Three of
the geometric contacts of the moons
limbs with the suns disk were success
fully observed. The duration of to-
tality-that is, the interval elapsing be-
tween the second and third contacts
was one hundred eighteen seconds, or
three seconds longer than was pre-
dicted. The entire duration of the
eclipse, or the interval elapsing be-
tween the first and fourth contacts,
was nearly three hours. Short as was
the duration of totality, Professor
Pickering succeeded in obtaining from
fifty to sixty Photographic negatives
and a few good drawings of the coronal
forms. The great Lick observatory
was outside the belt of totally and the
observers were somewhat handicapped
by clouds during the earlier part of the
eclipse. They succeeded, however, in
obtaining a good observation of the last
contact and made thirteen photographs.
AT the Yale station at Winnemucca,
Nevada, all four of the contacts were
observed and several good drawings of
the corona obtained.
Naturally the chief interest centers
in the observations of the solar corona
While the complete results of these OBJ
servations can not yet be fully esti-
mated, since the work Of the astrOu-
omers was largely Photographic, most of
the negatives being taken elsewhere to
be developed, yet it is safe to say that
they will be the most important con-
tributions ever MADE toward this de-
partment of astronomical science. The
instruments used were the most power
full ever brought to bear upon the
corona. The corona, as observed at
Willow, had the general form presented
in the total eclipse of 1865. That
corona was somewhat star-like, I'M
usually large and irregular, with two
very long luminous extensions on either
side of the SUMS middle zone. These
gaseous extensions projected outward
from the sun distance Of two of its
diameters, or two million miles. The
precise nature and composition of this
luminous halo is known only in part.
1t is not, as was once supposed, a
luminous phenomenon of the earth's at
mosphere, since its spectrum shows the
presence of hydrogen in a cool form
and another substance as yet undeter-
mined This substance must be some
thing with vapor density far below
that of hydrogen itself and is probably
an element unknown to terrestrial chem
istry. The observations with the spec
troscope during the recent eclipse were
very sue, sful, and it is expected that
they will contain revelations that will
greatly assist in solving the problem
of the nature of this solar appendage.
The extent and brilliancy of the coronal
ring appears to vary in different years.
The corona observed in the eclipse OF
1869 was not as extensive as that OBJ
served in 1878, and the spectroscopic
observations of last week will doubtless
suggest, if they do not demonstrate
the cause of these variations.
1t is also highly probable that the re-
cent observations will throw more light
on the connection between solar anC
terrestrial meteorology. The corona has
enormous extensions from the spo
zones of the sun, and it requires nj
} stretch of the Imagination to believe
that the pulsations of heat along The
lines of the coronal streamers, varying
with the ebb and flow of solar activity
reach the earth's atmosphere with dis
turbing effects. The corona is com
/ posed of excessively rare matter, anC
J and in year of maximum solar &C
tivity the efiluX of such matter i
, probably much greater than usual
} The corona thus serves somewhat as
, solar thermometer, measuring the va
| riations in the heat of that body
, which is the prime source of all tn
f earth's storm energy and season anoma