The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-11
THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.
THE OBSERVATIONS AT THE YALE
 OBSERY.4TORY.

1 Everything Was Peculiarly Favorable iI
 the Evening, but the Clouds Frustrated the Astronomers Hopes.
 1 Yale's astronomers were very widt
 awake last night over the moons eclipse. Every necessary preparation for taking full and complete cogniz ance of the event was made. The nigh
 promised to be very favorable for thu work; the air being clear with the skies comparatively free from clouds and it shone at its best up to about | g D. m. when the first faint trace of shadow across the lower edge o1 it's disc appeared All over the city people were alert viewing the eclipse from doorways and windows. The Yale astronomers. Dr. Elkins and his assistant, Mir. Chase, were in high spirits, the circumstances at the start last night being unusually favor able for taking the observations sought, but their hopes were dampened little later owing to the frequent interven- ton of clouds, which were light and fieecy, but all the same were exceeding ly exaspera ting, as they shut off the taking of various observations requisite for obtaining the decided result The astronomers hoped to obtain measure ments of the moons diameters in va rious directions, the object being to ascertain if there is any difference be- tween the polar and the equatorial diameters of this luminary. The astronomers secured several measure ments determining the polar diameter but the clouds were too lively and frisky for the full success of the work and the equatorial diameter could not be obtained The moon entered the earth's shadow at 8:54 and the eclipse became total at 9:52, ending at 12;24 Soon after the moon' entered the earths s shadow; the clouds began their ap- pearance over the moons face, thus frustrating the astronomerS' hopes, and it could not be determined whether the moon is an oblate spheroid or not. But pr. Elkins says there will be an- other total eclipse of the moon visible in these parts next September. It is seldom at lunar eclipse that all the circumstances were so favorable as was the case early last evening. It was intended to take several snap shot photographs of the moon last night, but this was prevented by the appear ance of the clouds.
 roIf Nf ba ap al nxte4r rrtc ble to all that portion of the world where it is night at the time of the eclipse; but eclipses of the sun are visible only from that portion of the earth that is toward the sun during the eclipse.
 As the moon shines by borrowed light from the sun, it loses that light when the earth gets between it and the source of it's light, and an eclipse of the moon is the result. An eclipse of tn esun is caused by the moon passing between the earth and the sun and for a time shutting off the sums light from the earth.
 The plane, or path, in which the earth moves around the sun is called the ecliptic, and corresponds to the seeming path of the sun in the heav- ens. This path is inclined to the equator of the heavens at an angle of about 231s degrees, causing the sun to stand high in the sky in summer and low in winter, and produces the of seasons and the variation n the length of the days and nights | If the moons plans were the same as hat of the earth, there would be an | eclipse of the sun at every new moon md an eclipse of the moon at every | ull moon, but the mooons orbit is | lightly inclined to the ecliptic, or real | path of the earth around the sun, at | Ln angle of about degreees. This | Sives the moon a wider range in the | ky, so that it may at one time be 'nly about 12 degrees from the zenith, 'r point directly overhead, and again within 20 degrees of the horizon, or he point at which the earth and the ky seem to meet.
 As the moon revolves and passes within the shadow of the earth, caused " the sun shining upon the opposite emisphere from that upon the oppo- ite hemisphere from that upon which he observer stands, an eclipse is aused, and is either total or partial | ccording to the distance that 1t tra- erses in the shadow. A total eclipse 5 caused by the moon going entirely cross the shadow.
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