The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-12

which had been brought round Cape
Horn for their use. The yacht covered
5000 miles on the voyage, of which the
Amherst party sailed 10000, carrying an
equipment of delicate and valuable in
struments. and then were disappointed
because just at the critical moment there
was bit of white cloud in the line of
the eclipse. The meteorological record of
Sumatra is good, and under the law of
probabilities, the astronomers have rea-
son to hope for a clear day on May II,
but there can be no assurance beyond
hope based on this fair probability.
1t is, of course, rather unusual for
a technical school to send a party to
observe an eclipse of the sun, whether
at the antipodes or nearer home, bit
the expedition is, in fact, quite in line
with the recent policy of the Institute
of Technology. Moreover the institute
has a certain amount of money which
is available only for special scientific re-
search and 1t is from this fund that tho
expenses of the long voyage have been
betrayed, in the hope that something
valuable might be done in the region Of
pure science
The eclipse last year offered an op.
portunity for making observations COM
paratively near home and incidental to
the astronomical work some geodetic
work was done. For example, in Illus
tration Of this latter point, it was known
that the maps of the part of Georgia
in the neighborhood of Washington were
not controlled by triangulation and it
was not expected that the latitude and
longitude of the station could be &C.
curately scaled from them. Prof Bur
ton. therefore. made an independent ex-
animation. obtaining the latitude by
nf
the longitude by a time signal from
Washington, D. c. This determination
placed the location of the observing ssa-
ton some four miles north and nearly
two miles west of the map location. and
off the central line Of the eclipse sufTl.
GENTLY to reduce the period of computed
totality about two seconds.
While the present party is prepared to
undertake similar corrective deter1nin-
atoms in Sumatra the chief purpose is
independent astronomical work This will
consist of observations of the four con-
facts, namely, the first contact, when the
edge of the noon touches the edge of the
sun, the second contact, or the BEGIN
ming Of totality. when the sun is first
completely hidden; the third contact, or
the end of totality, when the rim Of the
sun is about to emerge from the shad-
of the moon separates itself from tbs
edge of the sun. With the first contact
a growing darkness advances steadily to-
ward the spectator, the birds, as one
writer describes it, fly silently to their
nests, and all nature seems to take on
the hush of sudden night. A little golden
rim Of the sun is visible up to the NO,
ment of the second contact. When that
disappears the corona, about which SO
much has been written by all who have
described a total eclipse, seems to flash
out from the black disk Of the moon with
wonderful and almost unearthiy
beauty.
The corona, supposedly, is a permanent
phenomenon, but it is not revealed until
the last rays of the sun are hidden.
There are really two coronas, the inner
corona, which seems to surround the
moon like direct halo, and the outer
corona, which sends out faint streamers
of light far into the darkness of the
heavens. What the corona is or what it's
causes are nobody knows, but the strange
corona light has awakened the curiosity
CT the astronomers of many centuries
Within comparatively few years it has
been possible. however, to photograph
this phenomenon, and Mr.. Smith, the
photographer of the institute expedition,
has introduced novel methods for mount