Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-03-03
TOTAL ECLIPSE IN MAY.
The Government Will Have Observatory
In South Carolina.

The Government Will Have Observatory
In South Carolina.
New York Tribune.
The naval observatory has asked
congress for an appropriation of $4,000
for the purpose of studying and OBJ
serving the total solar eclipse of
May % next, phenomenon of special
interest to America, as it is the first one
that will be visible generally in this
country since 1878, the only exception
being the eclipse of 1899, visible from
the west coast of California up into
Manitoba. The eclipse next spring is
visible in narrow line or belt extend
ing from Norfolk, Va, in generally
southwesterly direction through Texas
and Mexico. The duration of totality
at Norfolk is about a minute and
half and the time diminishes until
New Orleans, where it is only about
minute and twelve seconds.
Preparations for observing this
eclipse were begun three years ago by
the weather bureau, which gathered
extensive data concerning the cloudi-
ness and general conditions of the
weather on May %, in the regions over
which the eclipse will be total. Their
results, recently published, show that
the best positions for observing the
eclipse, where there will be the great
est probability of clear weather, are in
South Carolina, Northern Georgia and
Alabama. But in order to secure a
certainty, stations will be occupied all
along the line of totality.
At the coming eclipse the observato-
ry will utilize instruments of great
value for the study of this peculiar
phenomenon. First, the observation
of the precise time at which the con-
facts of the moon to take place, in Or
der to fix precisely its position in the
heavens relatively to the SUD, which
can be done with unusual accuracy
only at the time of solar eclipse. The
second purpose will be to study with
Photographic instruments and the
spectroscope the structure and COM
position of the suns surroundings.
This latter field is the one which pos
sesses such absorbing popular interest,
and the 40-foot Photographic lenses of
the observatory will give large photo
graphs, which will show the finest de-
tail of the corona. Smaller instru-
ments, however, with lenses of the
finest workmanship, will be used to
photograph the widest extensions of
the corona. Stations will have to be
chosen some time in advance of the
eclipse, and the telescopes mounted
and adjusted to be in readiness for the
important moment.
The task of mounting the telescopes,
40 feet long, 30 as to point at definite
region Of the sky at the precise mo-
ment of time, and that the moment
at which the sun will be iu position to
send its rays through the long canvas
tube which will cut out the stray light
of the atmosphere, is no light task,
and yet it has been successfully &C.
complished on several expeditions by
the eclipse parties of the Lick obser-
vatory. The observatory has in time
past sent out eclipse parties to distant
parts of the world, the last extensive
being in 1888, to the Caro-
line Islands, in the South Pacific, of
which the present astronomical direc-
tor of the observatory, Prof. S. ].
Brown, was q member. This eclipse,
whose duration was unusually long,
was visible at only two small dots of
land in the Pacific ocean, the rest of
its entire track passing over the watery
waste. Previous TO that in 1878,
several government parties occupied
positions on the long line of totality
extending from Iowa to the Pacific
coast, especially in the high rocky
mountains where the atmosphere was
light and transparent.
Although the proposed appropria-
tion of $4,000 seems ludicrously mad
equate and is much less than those
given in former times, the convenience
and accessibility of the stations and
the fact that the observatory already
possess many valuable instruments, ex-
plain why such a relatively small
amount will be productive of much
good, provided the expedition is sue
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