The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1900-02-27

from tho sky. During the obscura-
zion u weird and dreadful shadow
enVclops all things, and u strong
chill fulls over the land, as if door
was opened into long closed box.
Sometimes dow falls.
Describing such an eclipse, Mary
L. Todd, the astronomer, says:
"A sonso Of uncasiness seems grad
| ually to steal ovor all lifo. Cows
| and horses feed internationally, bird
songs diminish, grasshoppors fall
quiet. A weird light, wan, unnatu-
ral and different from twilight falls
upon tho landscape. Da,ker and
darker it grows, and at this stage
frightened savagcs beat upon gongs
with wild shouts and uprour. Then
with frightful velocity tho actual
shadow Of tho moon is seon approach
ing--a tnngiLlo darkness like wall,
swift rs Imagination, silent rs doom.
Strong must be tho nerves not to
culver as tho blue black shadow
| upon fho spectator with incredible
snccd. A dcathliko trance seizcs
! upon everything earthly. Then out
| Of tho darkness flashes tho glory Of
tho incompatible corona---a sllvery,
soft uucnrthly light, with radiant
streams stretching millions Of miles
into space, while rosy flaming protu-
horances skirt tho black rim Of tho
| moon. 1t has become curiously cold.
Suddenly an arrow Of sunlight strikes
the landscape and earth comcs TO
light again, while corona and protu,
horances melt into tho returning bril-
jancc, and perhaps tho receding lu-
Mar shadow is glimpsed as it flies
away with the tremendous speed of
its approach."
Astronomers nowadays are moro
! interested in tho corona than in any
other feature Of a total eclipse. Nor
nocd This be Wondered at, inasmuch
as this phenomenon is wholly mys.
terry, no satisfactory explanation of
it having been found. At the period
Of "totnlity"-i. O., when the face of
tho sun is entirely hidden by the
moon--a pale halo Of light is seen
oncrclIng the dark body Of the lunar
orb. Being SO pale, rs compared
| with the sun itself, this halo is never
observable except when the moon in
| torposcs herself between the sun and
tho earth; hence the great eagerncss
Of astronomers to use those few pre-
cious moments for tho purpose Of
watching tho phenomenon in ques-
tion. Commonly, tho observer who
is to take q special note Of the corona
on the occasion of a special eclipse
has his eyes bandaged for ten Hin
utes before "totality," so that Trey
may be acutely sensitive to tho faint.
est rays. Then, as we'll as he can,
he sketches it's appearance, and most
particularly tho wonderful streams
which arc seon extending from the
sun 10,OOO,OOO miles or moro into
lspuce
| Now what arc thc,e streamers
| Tho answer is that nobody knows.
What is it that composes the halo
! like envelope Of tho sunY Nobody
can tell that either. 1t is surmised
by somo astronomers that the corona
is composed Of star -dust-meteoric
matter in finely divided state,
| which is rendered visible by reflect
ing the radiance of the solar photo
| sphere. Anothet theory is that it is
electrical, and yet another that il
represents a gaseout atmosphere sur,
rounding the sun. 1t WAS Prof S. p
Langley who, in 1878, discovered the
coronal streamers from the summit
of Pixies Peak, but as far back as
1869 Prof. Young found in the corona
a substance unlike anything known
on the earth, to which he gave the
name "coronium."
Another curious thing noticed al
tho period Of "totality" is the shoot
ing out Of vivid rose coored flames
around the cdgo Of tho moon, These
hayo been photographed, and it has
boon ascortained by spectral analysis
that they are composed chiefly of by.
drogen--of course, in a tremendous