The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-09-27
TO PHOTOGRAPH THE sun.
Professor Campbell OF Lick Oh.
servatory TO Visit India.


w. Campbell of the Lick Observatory
will head the expedition TO India made
possible through the generosity of the
late Col. c. F. Croker, to observe ii,
says the Chronicle. India and eastern
coast of Africa, north of Madagascar,
will be in the path of totality. Three
expeditions will leave England and one
from the observatory at Paris may go
out to observe the eclipse The Lick
expedition will be the only one leav-
ing the United States.
Professor Campbell will be accom-
panied by his wife and by Miss Row
ena Beans, a young lady of social
prominence in San Jose.
India is preferred as the base of
operations, the line of totality-or path
of the eclipse-passing directly across
the peninsular from east to west. The
party will leave on the steamer Belgic,
starting from San Francisco October
Goth, and carrying two tons of scienti-
fic freight. The same telescope which
was used on the unfortunate eXpedi-
ton TO Japan last year will be taken,
together with two or three smaller
ones, all for photographing the suns
corona. Besiles these, all the other
instruments used in observing the
eclipses in Japan and South America
will be transported, and at least five
spectroscopes with which to photo
graph the spectrum of the different
parts of the corona will be taken.
This corona is simply the gaseous
surrounding of the sun, which shows
like beautiful halo of delicate blu
ish-white about the moon during the
total eclipse. Contrasting brilliantly
with it are the prominences of fiery red
which are thrown out from the sun
into long fantastic streamers project
ing thousands of miles into space.
The principal problems with which
Professor Campbell will have to deal
are first, to determine the composition
of the corona-how much is gaseous
and much formed of the solid particles
supposedly expelled from the sun; and,
second, to study the nature of the So
lar prominenceS, to decide how the
different parts of the corona are NOV
ing and to analyze it's light. These
points have never been satisfactorily
solved.
After reaching Hong Kong via Ho-
nolulu and Yokohama Professor
Campbell will connect with the P. & O..
steamers. and then touching success
lively at Singapore, Penang and Colon
DO in the Island of Ceylon, will reach
he
ty will land, purchase food supplies
and hire servants, and then proceed
by rail 200 miles inland to Poona,
where camp will be temporarily pitch
ed. From this place Professor Camp
bell will travel first due south to Ka-
rad and afterward to Jeur, which is
southeast of POona. These points,
through which the line of totallty
passes, are 200 miles apart, and one
of the two will be chosen as the spot
in which to view the eclipse to the
best advantage, because they are most
easily accessible from the coast by rail
and near to the base of food supplies.
Professor Campbell will carefully in
spect each place with the proper in
strumentS, with a view to the near
ness of each to the line of crossing,
the elevation, the supply of water-so
necessary to photography as well as
living purpoSeS-and the other neceS-
sary conditions.
Karad will probably be chosen, and
after the exact location has been de-
cided upon the great 40-foot telescope
will be set upon steep hill or placed
against a high building with a solid
foundation. The camp will be finally
pitched about December 21st, and then
the intervening weeks Of preparation
will begin.
Karad has population of about A.
900, mostly Hindoos and Mohammed-
ans, with here and there an occasional
foreigner The food of the expedition
will be daily shipped from Poona. On
account of the snakes which infest this
part of India, the party will be forced
to sleep in hammocks.
The eclipse lasts 2 minutes and 3
seconds, and on these very minutes
and seconds hangs the fate of
months of anxious preparation and the
long, expensive trip. The time OF the
eclipse would be in California just be-
fore midnight on January 81, 1898, but
in India it will take place three-quar-
tiers of an hour after noon on the I'D.
Professor Campbell expects to carry
with MIN lOO pOuHuS VI pnOCOSI1pniO
plates, which he will have TO develop
in the nighttime, and from which
copies must be made, in case the or
iginals should be broken in the home
transit, part of the latter coming by
one line of steamers and the rest by
another.
After the eclipse has taken place the
entire astronomical paraphernalia Will
be carefully repacked and started on
the return voyage. Then Professor
Campbell and party will take prl-
vate tour through Northern India, re-
turning home by way of Egypt, Italy,
France and England, and calling at all
the principal observatorles.
AND HUMAN LIFE. |