Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-05-27
The Eclipse Monday.

4
astronomical event OF the first i'm
portance by Uncle Sans experts at the
Washington Naval Observatory. Many
weeks have been spent in preparing
for the phenomenon. Sky charts and
United States maps have been careful
ly studied with the result that the
chief astronomers have decided to
equip two expeditions--one for Pine
hurst Moore county, N. c., and an
other for Barnesville, Pike county, Ga.
To the North Carolina station Pro-
fessor A. N. Skinner will pilot a corps
of twelve astronomers, and like body
will accompany Professor Milton Upde-
graft into Georgia. There are two
reasons why the Washington stargaz-
ers have selected these distant points
for viewing the coming eclipse: First,
| they desire to set up their instruments
in the very center of the path of to-
tality; second, careful examination of
the weather charts indicated that they
were much more likely to escape
cloudy skies at this season of the year
in Georgia and North Carolina than
in Virginia, along the coast, from
which the phenomenon may also be
observed in the event of clear at
mosphere.
Several tons of special apparatus
have already been shipped to the
places selected as headquarters, and
Professor Skinner has gone to Pine
hurst to superintend the erection of
one of the largest cameras ever con-
structed. This giant camera, by the
way, does not have the appearance of
photographs apparatus at all. There
is wooden scaffoldng, in form like
a pyramid, and forty feet high. Ris-
ing from the ground to the top of this
at an agile that will cause the upper
end to point directly at the spot in the
heavens where the great luminary is to
be eclipsed is a framework of iron,
carrying in its interior a gigantic can
vas tube. In the upper end of this
tube, which will project nearly fifty
feet into the air, will be inserted five
inch lenses, or objective glasses. The
lower end of the canvas tube will pass
into large ligt-tight shed, which will
be the box and plate holder of the til
tanic camera. In this the astronomers
will expose the immense plates which
are to receive the image of the sun
when shut out of view by the moon.
With this enormous picture making
| machine the Naval Observatory ex-
perts will secure negatives from which
will be printed images of the sun
eclipse Az inches i'll diameter. But the
plates will also show the mysterious
corona, or halo of the sun, which will
be three times as large as the image of
| the sun itself.
The phenomenon of May 2S will be
visible as partial or total eclipse
| throughout the whole of North Amer
| lea, except in the extreme western part
of Alaska, and may also be viewed in
part of South America, the whole of
| Europe, the northern and central por-
| tions of Africa and the northwestern
part of Asia. The path of the tctal
eclipse will begin at S:0G a. m. in the
Pacific Ocean, at point southwest of
Capt st. Lucas, and move in a north
easterly direction. The disk of the sun
will be completely obscured for brief
period, at no point longer than two
minutes, in New Orleans, Mobile. Raj
elgh, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va
In New York, Washington, Boston,
Chicago, Cincinnati, st. Louis and
other cities may be witnessed the phe-
nomenon of partial eclipse. The sun
will be about seven-eights obscured in
New York, the eclipse beginning at
1853 a. m. and ending at 1928 a. m.
Professor Skinner has computed
that the totalty of Pinehurst will take
place at $3.50 a. m, and will last about
one minute and thirty seconds, during
"hNh tiiC 6idhl tdItld w III Ue III
rapid operation. Even in the path of
totality, where the entire visage of the
sun will be hidden, the effect will net
resemble that Of night, but rather a
deep twilight, in which it will be pos
sibe to read coarse type The partial
light is due to the fact that the bright
er inner corona of the sun will be
partly visible as the moon covers the
disk.
The astronomers are hopeful that
nature will not be so perverse as to.
present a clouded sky on the morning
of the 2Sth. for large sum has been
expended in preparing the special in
struments and chipping them long dis
tances to be set up for use. When
asked what he would. do in the event
of the sun being obscured, Professor
Skinner replied that the only thing
would be to pack up the paraphernal-
ia and return to Washington. but add
ed that the elaborate preparations
would not come to naught, for next
year there is to be better total
eclipse. In 1901, when the suns face
is obscured by the interposing moon,
there will be many scientific expedi-
tions to the island of Sumatra, for on
that occasion the great luminary will
be hidden for six whole minutes, q