Evening journal., 1889-12-24
WATCHING THE ECLIPSE.
The Results Of the American
Expedition in Africa.
MANY PICTURES WERE sEcURED.

The Frightfui Velocity OF the Moons
shadow-The Cape Ledo Expedition
Was very Lucky, but tho Engiishmen
were Disappointed.
Er PAUL.7DE LoASpA, Dec. 24-Ths
Gather was clear during the first part Of
&eclipse, but the sky was obscured about
xs time Of totality The direct view with
y photoheliograph Of forty foot focus
proved an entire success, and the equatorial
mounting for it worked very successfully.
This instrument was managed by Professor
Bigelow and the new circumpolar plates of
fwenty-two inches in. n.diameter were handled
without difficulty Each plate has ten
images Of the partially eclipscd sun on it,
and the measurement Of each image will
give accurate corrections to the position of
the moon relative to the sun.
Many Pictures OF the Eclipse.
We obtained seventy Of these pictures be.
fore the middle Of the eclipse aud ten after
1otality There was no hitch in the working
of the apparatus, which was all automatic,
and with an extra Photographic assistant it
would have been easily possible to take
ewelve or fifteen hundred pictures Of the
eclipse in all it's partial phases, had there
been any object in so doing. Professor
Pickering's cloud recorder, for giving com.
plete pictures Of the eclipse was mounted on
secure foundation and operated in con
nection with other apparatus
Everything Worked Smoothly.
The beginning Of the total eclipse or the
second contact was lost in the clouds and
could not be observed, and the third contact
was obscured by clouds and was not OBJ
served. The end Of the eclipse or fourth
and last contact happened in the clouds
Neither Photographic records nor optical
observations of it were possible The pneu-
matc movements Of all..the Photographic
apparatus were thoroughly accurate. Not
only were the durations of the exposure
regulated with entire precision, but the
exact time of the beginning ana ending OF
every exposure was automatically recorded
by the same apparatus.
Pnenmatio Valves a Success.
1t is demonstrated that the principle is
correct, and with pneumatic valves il is
shown to be possible to operate five telescope
cameras as easily as two or three have been
damaged in eclipse work heretofore
The Ocean Partyss luck.
The United States ship Pensacola has re-
armed to Cape Ledo from her tr ip out at
"a to observe the eclipse. The ocean party
gas only partially successful, and they bring
lack few pictures Of the eclipse, some OF
which will be seryiceable The longitude Of
St Paul de Loanda will not be determined
by the exchange Of cable signals with the
Royal observatory at Cape Town.
The Moons Terrifying shadow.
The colors, a few minutes before totality,
both on land and in the sky, were magnih-
cent The moons shadow when approach
ing our station at Cape Ledo swept over the
ocean toward US with velocity actually
terrifying The water, which in the sun
Light had been of a lovely indescrihable pea
cock blue or green, assumed dark livid
green, almost black and the comb Of break
ers, snow white in ordinary daylight, under
<he gloom Of the eclipse broke into foam
a lurid purple.
The Sky Turned LivId Gray.
There was no marked change in the day.
hght until the sun was nearly covered,
hen a strange portentous, pallid semi-ob-
eurity spread over the earth The sky
-arned lvid gray, inducing the feeling that
some terrible catastrophe was near at hand.
The atmospheric conditions varied very
much during the eclipse, alternating with
cloud and sunshine, but the results are not
disappointing During the total eclipse sew
eral prominences attained great distinctnes'
and brilliancy. The air temperature fel
slightly below its normal, the lowest tenn
perature occurring several minutes aftei
fotality.
The object OF the Expedition.
The object OF the expedition was to study
the corona or halo of brightness that sur
-. NJ n. Al. -. a.
sun is hidden behind it The American OBJ
servers undertook to find out whether thu
corona actually changes its form during the
two hours or more while the moons shadow
IS crossing the Atlantic. They undertook
also 10 find out whether the fine rays tha
appear to radiate from the poles Of the sun
and which form an interesting feature o
Abe corona, are curved or not.
The conclusive answer to this question
OF fundamental importanc e--for, il thes
rays are curved there can be no mere optica
effect Of for instance slight shining throug
holes in the suns chromosphere.n If thes
rays are curved there is likely to be fearfu
mortality among current spec ulation regard
ing the origin Of the corona. The America
Observers undertook particularly to find ou
whether the corona has now the same lon
1luatorial extensions that il had in Januar
Ast, and which were first brought prom
nently to attention by American observers /
De eclipse Of August, 1878 The result {
be expedition viii be announced more full
hter.
The Mysterious Corona.
No one now thinks the corona 10 be dr
20 our atmosphere though there are still
few physicists who do not believe ID 20 b
either solar or lunar appendage in the trt
sense Of the word For, il the corona has I
reality and is a mere atmospheric effec
then all the solar light that can fall on OF
atmosphere must come from the body OF Il
sun But the shadow within which the 81
does not shine, is often seventy miles
more Ia diameter; 50 that, with no 9TH
source Of light than the body Of the SUM- ii
sky Of the eclipse observer would be as dai
As night, whereas it is brighter than IL
nonlight This proves conclusively tn
ht-nlight which we get so abundantly durir
AZ al eclipse comes from the corona, unle
wa sumo that there is a fairly dense lun
atmf sphere.
It enay be regarded as practically settl
that the corona is a real physical thing a
that it belongs TO the sun itself
Five hours in a century, at a liberal e.
mate, in which to secure the facts relati
80 a phenomenon 50 complicated and imp'
tant as the corona cannot be regarded as
very liberal allowance Enough inform
tion aboutit has now accumulated, howev
20 ais Inf - lac 4,