Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-05-28
Will Commence for This Civ
at 8.19 A. NJ.
Will End at l0.56--About 90 PEI
Cent. Of Sun Will Be Covered.
Get Out Your Smoked Glass and PRAY for Fair
Weather.

eclpSe mere the moving disc of black
passing before the sun may be plainly
seen with the naked eye, providing the
weather is clear.
While the effect of the eclipse. when
at its height, will be to reduce the suns
light. there will not be in this neighbor
hood that deep shadow which results
from the total eclipse. as observed in
the area of totality, SO called, or region
where the interDosition of the moon
between the earth and the sun is COM
plete. In this latitude no trace Of the
suns fringes of fire, observable in the
total eclipse, can be seen.
For the benefit of those who wish to
photograph the eclipse, it may be said
with sufficiently fast shutter, will
serve for the purpose of getting a good
picture.
1t will be necessary to have fast
shutter the faster the better, as the
diffusion of light around the sun will
be enough to overeXpose a plate if a
common snapshot shutter is used.
Those persons, however, who are not
possessed of a fast shutter might try
The result, while not likely to prove en-
tirely satisfactory, at least will be in
teresting.
Observation of the eclipse may best
be made through some sort of colored
glass, green, blue or yellow being pref
cradle, or through smoked glass, the
object being to reduce the glare of the
light from the sun. which is extremely
trying to the naked eye.
BY employing a small telescope, or
even common field glasses, or opera
glasses, much better view of the
eclipse can be procured than without
such aids to the vision, and these in
struments may be combined to advan-
tage with colored glass before their
lenses.
The present eclipse will cover an area
of totality, or band of shadow across
the face of the country, from New Or
leans northwestward to Norfolk. in the
United States. 1t begins in the Pacific.
900 miles off the coast of Mexico. at
sunrise, travels at the rate Of 1900 miles
an hour, crosses this country in the di-
rection and location described, crosses
the Atlantic. traverses portions of POr-
luSdl anu Spain, AlStl WIS, IL ibOli
and Egypt, and ends in the Red sea. at
sunset. 1t will be observed by scien-
lists from every civilized country. One
of the chief observation points on the
other side Of the water is in the inter
ior of Tripoli. where the air is general
ly free from clouds. and free field of
observation is practically certain. Mr.
Percival Lowell of Boston, and Prof.
Todd of Amherst are stationed there.
As the period of totally Of the eclipse
is but a little more than a minute.
owing to the rate at which the shadow
| is going, the scientists who are to OBJ
serve and photograph it will need to
make the most of their time.
AT New Orleans the sun will be COM
pletely covered only 6S seconds. in
Raleigh II seconds, and in Norfolk 60
| seconds.
BY those fortunate enough to be in
the path Of the total eclipse. one of the
greatest of spectacles may be observed.
| The race Of the moons shadow across
| the face of the landscape as the mo-
ment of totality approaches has al
ways been described by observers as
one of the most awe inspiring scenes
| llldl II Is DOSSlDlt " lIildSllts IlNh
comes the obsecurity. the disappear
ance of the sun. the strange chill of
unnatural darkness, the outburst of
the wonderful coronal streamers
around the spot where a black hole
seems suddenly to have taken the place
Of the sun. the red flames of the prom
inences. and after one or two minutes
of awful pause and silence, the CLEAN
Of the reappearing orb and the swift
flight of the shadow eastward. During
most eclipses that have hitherto oc
Cured. astronomers have had few eyes
to assist their own in showing the pic
turesque features of the phenomenon.
Well-known astronomers who have
gone half around the earth to observe
an eclipse have come back acknowl-
edging that they had not really seen it
because they had no time to look at it.
Their attention was entirely absorbed
by the technical observations, and only
a dream-like impression of the real
wonders of the scene had been made
upon their minds.
1t is hard to get two people who
have seen a total eclipse to agree as to
the color of the shadow cast upon the
II.
as round ball of darkness, with an
orange border, some as purple, and
some as brown. To get the full eff
feet of the rush of the shadow across
the earth's surface, one needs to be
on some high place where he can look
over the country and see it coming.
Science expects great results from
this eclipse, owing to the number of
places from which it is to be observed.
and the improved apparatus now avail
able for making photographs and Sc
curing other forms of data The hoped
for results are:
l. Rediscovery and location and de-
termination of the nature of the miss
ing planet Vulcan, first supposed to
have been seen by Lescarbot in 1859,
and last by Profs. Watson and Swift
in 1878. Vulcan may be single planet
or ring Of dust or asteroids.
2. Definite determination of the ma
ture of the gaseous layers surrounding
the sun, upon which the welfare of the
earth as a habitable globe largely de-
ponds.
8. Determination of the real charac-
ter Of the vast luminous streamers and
envelopes called the solar corona.