Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-04-07

garden on n clOudleSs night when all
of a sudden the moon was blotted out
of his sight. Whereupon he became
so angry at the failure of his pet as
tronomer to fortell the event that he
had him straightway put to death.
The instruments useu by these ancients
were extremely simple, yet they served
TO disclose facts about the movements
of tho heavenly bodies that remain to
this day mysteries to the great mass of
the people. The Greeks and Egyptians
were able, for instance, to form a
fairly accurate idea of the distance of
the earth from the sun by means of a
post stuck In the ground They came
short of the true distance by only some
twenty millions of miles.
Ever since man has existed as an in
telligent being he has observed that
the moon changes its place in the sky
from night TO night, and undergoes a
regular succession of phases, each oc-
curing after equal intervals. 1t was
to be expected, then, that such clever
people as the Chinese, Egyptians and
Chaldeans should have eventually
discovered that this path of the moon
in the sky frequently crossed the
shadow of the earth. At such times, of
course, there would be an eclipse of
the moon to observers situated on the
earth, and an eclipse OF the sun TO
those persons who CHANGED at the time
to be Watching out from the moon.
But to the great majority of ancient
nations eclipses were unexpected &C.
currences, which usually caused the
greatest CONSERVATION and were nearly
always associated with evil. Espec-
tally was this true of total eclipSes of
the sun. Those who have seen such a
total solar eclipse in n clear sky can
scarcely wonder that ignorant persons
should have been somewhat dismayed
at having their light suddenly snatched
away from them without apparent
cause 1t is n matter of historical
record that eclipses have turned the
tide of battles, have put a stop to ex-
petitions and have caused general,
though temporary, reforms in morals
on the part of many of the ancients.
With equal eXactitude astronomy in
forms us that there will be a total
eclipse of the sun on April 16 of this
year, and that it will be visible only in
the Southern Hemisphere. This is un-
fortunate for us who are tackled down
70 the United States, but there is no
reason why we should not be able TO
tell even now just what our more for
tunate neighbors will see without the
aid OF glasses.
A total eclipse OF the sun is caused by
the moon coming directly between the
earth and the sun, and at such point
that the cone of its shadow will reach
the earth. The moons distance from the
earth varies at different parts of her
orbit, and there are times when this
shadow cone, which Is less than the
mean distance of the moon from the
earth (23s, s00), will not reach us
At such times, although the moon should
step in directly between us and the sun,
the sun would not be entirely hidden,
but would be seen as brilliant ring of
light, the greater part of the disk being
blotted out by the black body of the
moon. Such an eclipse is called annular,
from the Latin word annus, meaning a
ring. At the eclipse of April 16 the posi-
ton Of the moon will answer all the
requirements for a perfect total eclipse
of the sun, and it is probable that the
numerous expeditions that will be sent
out from various northern countries will
make observations of considerable inn
portance Since the last total solar
eclipse visible to scientists the methods
of taking observations have greatly inn
proved. Chiefly is this true of pho
Biography, which is expected to play an
important part In next months investi-
cations. Photography performs the val
liable duty of making an eclipse perma-
nent which would otherwise last but a
few moments. And by makinga constant
succession of photographs from the in
slant of the first contact-that is when
the edge of the black moon first be-
nS