The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-28
ECLIPSE.
She Gets Behind a Cloud
and STAYS There.

Luna, orb of night, otherwise
known as the moon had an important
engagement yesterday. 1t was her time
to be ecliosed. Precisely at 4,41, the
astronomers foretold she would com
rence her old game of hide and seek
with the sun, and would coquettishly
keen her face concealed three full hours
before she consented to again reveal
her beaming countenance.
Promptly at the minute designated
countless members of saplent saVahts
levcled their telescopes skyWard to see
the finn Despite Lunas sex, they were
anuarently confident of her ablll-y 10
Keen an engagement on time, ana hau
adjusted their cameras, seXtaptS, SQes l.
runs and charts, intending to ehrlch
science with sundry important items OIL
scholarly research.
But Luna knows a thing or two, IN
spite of her age. She was noI lnteilu-
inc to let a set of scientific PeepIils
Toms" into the secret of her "g0lnBs
on" with the sun. So she tooIeo t Ii'=I.ii
/ They had come out to see an ecllpSe'
and they saw it, 1t was total ecIlpSe'
! foo Rnt she was not ecliDsed by the
! shadow of the earth, but by the shadow
!
INST ~ before the long anticipated
event a bank of clouds dense as New
foundland fog, was seen TO pass rom
| tbe east to the west across lnC Naul
of heaven" Little by little tn clouaS
obscured the silvery disk. Flnaly Ho M
! ing more of the moon was visible Inc
eclipse was total. H..
The observers were alled with dls-
pust II was a nice trick that had
! been PLAYED upon them They had
been confdenced into getting out their
| instruments, relying on the promise
| that there would surely be an ecllpSe
worth seeing When they saw now
| they had been cheated, they gave vent
| to much language not all of 1t stlenlinC
| or suited to the lecture hall. Ihen
| they raised their telescopes ana looked
at the cloud. They might as We'll nave
looked at the ground, Not nit OF
break in the cloud bank appeared.
That was the condition OF affairs un-
til a little after half past eight, When
the cloud parted and Luna came pro-
vokingly out But she appeared to be
the same as ever. Nothing unusual
could be noted in heI appearance. Al
ter taking a good, respectable, lady
like eclipse in private she was once
more on the street. She will neither
| eclipse nor be eclipsed for long time
to come,
Just what happened behind that
cloudbank will never be exactly known.
although the scientific men profess to
! be able to tell all about it. If what
| they say is true, the moon began to go
| into hiding at 5:57, had disappeared at
| 7.27, and was again herself at S.96. This
statement cannot be disproved, and the
people of Worcester will have to take
it as gospel until it is either affirmed OF
denied by the observers Of some distant
station where there was no interfering
cloudbank to obscure the investigation
The main importance of yesterday 5
eclipse lay in the elaborate obserVa-
lions taken all over the world for the
benefit of the Pulkowa observatory il
Russia. which invited all the leadina
ObserVatOries in both hemspheres Il
I cooperate in making the record Of OBJ
serVations for this eclipse more com
plete than that of any other ever
known.
Another important feature from
scientific standpoint is the photograph
ing of the occultation of stars. Occul
tation is a phenomenon observed dur
ing every lunar eclipse, but not before
this year has any man been successful
; in photographing the occultation of
star. Edward S. King of Harvard OBJ
seryatOry is the man who invented tn
process by which it was done. He in
tended making a number of photo
graphs yesterday but it is feared tina
he was unsuccessful on account of tn
cloudy atmosphere.