Omaha daily bee., 1919-05-02

| ture OF SEdNltdloI, we 90 NOT even
know the nature of the ether which
carries light, heat and electricity and
which may IN some way carry CRAWL
tation also. What is the constitu-
ton of the ether? 1t is surely mat
ter; it is not spirit; and if matter, is
it itself subject to gravitation?
A celebrated theory now promi-
nently discussed in technical maga-
zines, called "Einstein's Theory of
Gravitation," maintains that the eth
err is subject to gravity, and that,
therefore, large bodies like our sun
condense the ether in their neigh
borhoods. If this is true, then the
I light of a star that just grazes the
suns surface must be noticeably re-
fracted and bent out of its course,
just as the light of the sun grazing
the earth's surface and passing
through our air, which is enormously
denser than the ether of space, is
visibly refracted and bent into the
earth's shadow so as to fall upon the
moon when it is totally eclipsed in
this shadow. and illuminate it with
dull and beautiful coppery color.
Now, owing to the enormous brill
liancy of the sun, it is impossible to
see stars near it, except when the
sun itself is totally eclipsed. That
is our only chance. But the stars
must be very near the sun, SO near
that their rays must pass through
its corona, and they must be bright
enough to allow themselves to be
photographed during the precious
few seconds that total ec1ipses gen
orally last. AT recent eclipses no
stars were near enough to the sun to
be of use, and weather conditions
were also very adverse. AT the
coming eclipse on the 10Th the sun
will be near the group of the Hyades
in the constellation of the Bull, and
several very bright stars will be in
excellent position for the purpose
mentioned. And if we add to this
another very exceptional fact, the
long duration of totally, nearly
seven minutes as maximum, while
other eclipses like ours last year
have only about two minutes or less,
we will understand why the astron-
omical world is so much interested
in this eclipse.
But, like everything that is highly
PRICED, there are many practical diff
ficulties to overcome. The first is
that the best part sof the eclipse
track will be across the Atlantic
ocean near the equator, so that on
land stations in South America and
in Africa the sun will not be as high
in the sky as observers would wish,
and the duration will be only about
five minutes instead of nearly seven.
However, even these five are two or
three times as much as usual. Then,
secondly, the climate of the eclipse
stations is said to be very unhealthy
and the weather very unreliable.
And, lastly, the expense of travelling
and setting up large apparatus will
be unusually great and forbidding to
governments and universities, COM
ing as it does so soon after our
great war. The United States will
not send out an expedition at all.
The only parties that are at present
known to be in the field are two
from England, one of which is in
Brazil and the other in Guinea, in
Africa.
Let me add that when I said be-
fore that the stars must be noticea-
bly, refracted, | mean that two stars
which will be on opposite sides of
the sun during the eclipse will be
displaced on the Photographic plate
about one-t housandth of an inch
from their usual positions, when
they are photographed by tele-
scope IS feet long. No part of this
eclipse on the 10Th will be visible
in the United States.
The days increase in length about
one hour during the month, being IS
hours 81 minutes long on the 1st,
IA hours "a minutes on the 18th and
IA hours so minutes on the 31st. On
the 21st the sun enters Gemini, the
Twins.
We still have the three brightest
planets as evening stars this month,
although the late sunsets will not
show them off to advantage. Venus
sets on the 18th at :4o D. m. and
Jupiter at 1921 a. m, while Saturn
is south at 1888 p. m. On the 18th
at 6 p. m. Venus and Jupiter will
be in conjunction, their shortest dis
lance apart being about four times
the diameter of the moon.
The moon will be in conjunction
with Venus on the I'd, with Jupiter
OIL the 4th and 3lst and with Saturn