Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1900-05-17
THE COMING ECLIPSE.
It Will Be the Last for Eighteen
 Years.

[Frederick Campbell in Leslie's Weekly]. Eleven years have passed since the last total eclipse Of the sun in this country; eighteen years more are to pass before the next; conse- quentls tue total eclipse of the sun, visible in the United States on the 2Sth of May, being the only event of kind within period of more than a quarter Of a century, is to be regard ed as of great importanees There has ceased to be any mystery con- nected with the phenomena of eclipses, whether solar or lunar. The moon makes the complete cir cult of the heavens once Ill about 29h days; the sun appears to do the same, owing to the actual circuit | made by the earth, once in year. The moon, therefore, makes more than twelve circuits while the sun is making one. Consequently the l moon must oyertake and pass the l gun as many as twelve times in a year. Sun and moon both appear l to be moving in the same direction, not only, Lut in nearly the same 1 path. If they moved i'll exactly the same path the moon would pass in between the sun and earth at every circuit. and there would be an eclipse of the sun at every new moon. But the paths are not exactly the same; so the moon usually goes by either above or below the sun, There are points, however, where these two paths interseet, and if the sun and moon both happen at one of those points at the same time then an eclipse is inevitable. At such time. were these two bodies at the same distance from the earth, there would be @ collision, but. as they are at different distances, the
 moon, being the nearer of the two, simply shuts off the view of the sun, and the latter is eclipsed.
 Ii the moon were actually smaller or if she were more distant an there fore apparently smaller. then there
 would be simply transit" of the moon, like the well-known transits of Venue and mercury, both of which planets are immensely more distant
 than the moon. That Is, the moon
 would then be seen as a dark body l shutting off more or less of it's light, according to her apparent size. Now as a matter of fact, we do have tran sits of the moon, though they are commonly called "annular eclipses." 7" There are time when the sun is sev- eral million miles nearer than at other times, and when the moon IS several thousands of miles farther than at other times; if an eclipse oc- cur at such times the suns body is apparently enlarged, and the moons body apparently diminished. SD that the moon fails to cover the face of the sun, and ring of sunlight (ealled in Latin annulus) surrounds the moons body.
 If, on the other hand. the moon were actually larger, or if she were nearer and therefore apparently larger, there would be an oeeultation of the sun. That is, the suns bright face not only would be hidden from view, but also that vast and brilliant corona which surrounds his face, and which is never seen except during an eclipse The sun, with all that per tains to him, would appear utterly ext.nguished, ,and this state of things would continue for period of time proportionate to the size or appar- ent size. of the moon. During such an occuItat tion all the stars, " hich are as truly in the heavens Dy day as by night, would come out to view, l and cancellations which are seen only at the opposite season of the i year, would be on full exhibition. parent proximity to the sun, could not ordinarily be seen, would shine forth with their proper glory, and this latter fact would be consoling evidence that the snn had not been aL Lnihilated, since the radiance Of the planets is nothing but the reflected radiance of the sun, II he were des- troyed, they, too, would cease to glow.
 Now, it is remarkable thing that