The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-06-03
OF The
sun VISIBLE IN
AMERICA june 8

day for American astrono-
mers, both professional and amateur.
On that day a total eclipse will occur,
visible in certain parts of the United
States. Dame Nature will spread be-
fore us what is undoubtedly the very
finest spectacle in all her wonderful
realm.
Not every resident of the country
will be in position to see the phe
nomenon, for the favored region is
strip less than seventy mics wide,
but extending from the State of Wash
ington to. Florida.
The entire remainder of the United
States, as we'll as Canada, will see
the eclipse as a partial of greater or
less degree, depending on the dis
lance from the path" Do not think
however, that if you live in a place
where the sun will be eighty per
cent covered you will see eighty per
cent of what person in Denver, for
example, will see; we cannot make it
too emphatic that you have to be
within the path to see anything at
all of the phenomena of the totally
and that an almost total eclipse is
no better than a small partial one.
What Is An Eclipse?
At the time of an eclipse, the pos
itions of the Sun, Moon and Earth
are such that the Moon cuts off a
portion of the Earth from receiving
direct sunlight, i. e., the Moon gets
directly between the Sun and the
Earth in such way as to prevent
inhabitants of a certain region from
Nj
still a third way: the shadow of the
Moon touches the Earth.
The mechanics of this is very sim
pie: The Earth revolves about the
Sun, and the Moon revolves about
the Earth. Necessarily, therefore, the
Moon will have to get in, periodically,
between the Earth and the Sun, and
this happens every time there is
new moon. But we do not have an
eclipse often, because in order to have
an eclipse the three bodies must lie
fairly well along a straight line, while
at most new moons the Moon is eth
er too far above or too far below the
line joining Earth and Sun to pro-
duce the eclipse phenomenon.
The reason for this is that the plane
in which the moon revolves about the
earth is not the same as the plane in
which the Earth revolves about the
Sun, but rather makes an angle of
about fifty with the latter place.
Therefore, the Moons shadow usually
passes above or below the Earth, and
does not touch it.
The phase of the Moon at the time
of any solar eclipse is always new The
relative distances of the Sun and the
Moon from the Earth and their rel
ative sizes are such that only the tip
of the Moons shadow ever reaches
the Earth, and for that reason the
path of totality is narrow, averaging
about sixty miles.
AS the moon travels with tremen-
dous velocity along it's orbit the point
of shadow travels with corresponding
ly high velocity over the Earth's sur
face. Furthermore, as the disks of
the Sun and the Moon, seen from
the Earth, appear of very nearly the
same size, the time during which the
Moon can keep the Suns face, covered
is necessarily very short, not exceed
ing seven minutes.
| All these reasons combine in max
ing the total solar eclipse a rather
| observed phenomenon; not that the
| phenomenon itself is of so rare oc-
curance, but it is visible only to few
people properly located. In fact, sol
ar eclipses, total and partial, are of
more frequent occurance than the
lunar eclipses, but the latter are al
ways visible to an entire hemisphere
of people-all those who are HAVING
| their night
Description OF The Phenomenon.
The beauty of the total eclipse OF
the Sun is due to the fact that the
main body of the Sun is surrounded
by layer of luminous gases called
the chromosphere, which has a rich
red color and from which great
+ flames" or prominences, shoot ou
thousands of miles into space; besides
this, and outside of it, is the great
/ irregular halo called the corona, which
is of pale, silvery- colored light. Al
ordinary times, these are invisible, be-
cause of the dominating and binding
light of the Sun itself
| By means of certain instrument:
the chromosphere and prominences
though not the corona, can be studied
by astronomers at any time; but only
at total eclipse are these beautie.
revealed to the naked eye. One ma!
use a smoked glass to view the pro
gress of the partial eclipse phase which
precedes land follows) the totality
but no instrument is necessary at the
final moment
Before the preliminary partial phase
of the eclipse begins, the Moon, which
is quite close to the Sun, is of course
absolutely invisible. Suddenly we no
tice that a small slice has been GU
off the Suns disk; gradually thi:
black sector increases, as the Moor
? moves her immense bulk into line
Soon more than half of the Sun i:
covered. But even this great dimu
ton in the Suns effective surface ha.
no effect upon the brightness of the
day.
: AS the Sun shrinks into a crescent
we notice that the little patches OF
sunlight in the shadow, say, of q
nearby tree are of the form of a cres-
cent; this is a pin-hole camera effect
produced by the small spaces between
the leaves. AS the crescent shrinks
further into very thin line of light
the darkness begins to become no.
) ticeable and decidedly uncanny.
The Moon moves on, and suddenly
the last lingering ray of sunlight il
, cut off. The darkness has deepened
! and in that instant the rose-red col.
!, ors of the chromosphere and promi.
nences flash out, surrounded by the
pale glory of the corona. Some OF
the bright neighboring stars and plan.
cts also become visible and add to the
, ! IT11T1 civ e %GO
, tacle.
| The feu r,;,r+ee o1Io+ad To ,,so 49,