Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1892-10-21
ssFRECLES ON THE SUN.v
The Eclipse of the Sun Came off Today
on Schedule Time.

| VA 0CAAO~eAAS AAAAOs
From Thursdays Daily.
Smoked glasses were at premium
this morning. The eclipse of the sun
came Off promptly at the hour nam
ed and everyone turned out to see
the phenomena. :.=. Il. T.. ~
A blackburn bered. joke has describ-
cd spots on the sun as @sFreckles on
your boys face" However that
may be there was big frccle on the
suns face today. The eclipse was
visible through the greater portion
OF North America and persons who
were curious to possess astronomi-
cal knowledge had their smoked
glasses all ready.
In Little Falls the first glimpse of
anything out of the ordinary in the
appearance of the orb of day was OBJ
tanned at33 minutes and 10 seconds
after 10 O'Clock a. m. and the eclipse
ended at 1:25:16 p. m. 1t was at it's
best at noon, and Old Sol then show
ed only one-half of the surface usually
presented to the inhabitants of the
earth, The moon appeared first on
the upper edge Of the sun, cutting
out black notch from the dies.
This continued to increase until at
II O'Clock about one-half of the suns
disc was hidden by the moon. The
dark portion then gradually became
smaller until at 1:25 o'clock the sun
again beamed in all it's splendor and
glory. This was the second and
will be the last eclipse of the sun for
the season Of 1852, and there will be
nothing further to disturb the equan-
unity of the king OF light until an
other year shall have been ushered
in. The last eclipse, April rs, was
total, but it was visible only in the
South Pacific ocean.
Partial cclipses of the sun are of
common occurrence, and are astrOn-
omically Of little Importance, but
total eclipses, where the whole face
of the sun is hidden by the moon,
are very rare at any particular place
and they are of such great value and
interest to astronomers that expedit-
ions are sent half Way across the
earth to observe them, and then it
frequently happens that the day is
cloudy SO that nothing of the eclipse
can be seen, and the time, money and
travelling necessary to plan and car
~ out the arrangements are wasted.
The largest number of eclipses of
both sun and moon which can occur
in any one year is seven, of which
five will be of the sun and two of the
lesser orb. Thesmallest number pos
siblc in one year is two, both of
which will be OF the sun, The sui
passes each OF the moon nodes once
only in ayear, unless the first passage
occurs near Jan. l, in which case,
owing to the retrogradation of the
noda! points, it may pass one node
twice and the other once. Two SOL
ar eclipses may occur in January,
two in midsummer and then one in
December, but owing to the limited
extent OF the earth's surface to which
solar eclipses are visible, they are
less frequently observed at the same
place than lunar. A total eclipse of
the sun has not been visible in the
United States, and then only in por-
tons of it since August 7, 1869, when
the duration Of totally was two
minutes and AZ seconds. The occur
ence Of eclipses at the exact time pre-
diched by astronomers is signal
demonstration of the constancy of
the laws OF nature, and of the undev-
iating punctually with which her
grand operations are performed.