Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1925-01-07
ECLIPSE OF
SUN DUE ON
JANUARY ~
Solar Phenomena Will Be
Partial In WiscOnsin-As-
trOnOmers Prepare Data.

For a few minutes on January "a
next the moon will get between the
earth and the sun and cut off all the
light we get from that body. This
eclipse will be visible in the United
States, and it doubtless will be seen
by more millions of people than any
such occurrence in the past, accord
ing to Prof. E. w. Brown, of Yale uni
VerSity.
An eclipse is not a rare event, one
or two occur every year, but the one
this month is notable for the fact that
it occurs in territory from which
the light of the sun has not been Who'll
| ly obscured by the moon within the
memory of any one living.
eff we look over the records of
past eclipses," Professor Brown said,
land the predictions for future eclips-
es we soon see that in any one place
there will be a total eclipse of the
sun onl yonce in every few hundred
| years. The coming eclipse will pro-
| duce darkness over narrow hand of
territory which stretches from point
somewhat west of Duluth and after
crossing northern Michigan and Wis
consin is seen in Connecticut and then
passes out to sea- The hour of the
| phenomenon is between 9 and $3.50
eastern standard time"
There was an eclipse in 1919 visible
in Brazil and central West Africa, and
another last September seen by the
people of California and northern
Mexico.
"The accuracy with which the time
and position can be predicted for an
eclipse is high" Professor Brown
went on to say. "The staff of the
United States naval observatory at
Washington is always at work calcu-
lating the positions of the heavenly
bodies years in advance, in order that
the predictions may be useful. The
northern and southern edges of the
| shadow band can be laid down with
in a mile. Hence, when the almanac
/ predicts that the southern edge will
| cross the upper end of Central Park in
New York City it is fairly certain that
the shadow will not keep off the grass.
All this knowledge, however, is not
product of the present generation.
| 1t has been slowly accommodating
through many centuries. Most of it is
due to the proof of the law of gravi-
| tation which was given by Isaac New
ton toward the end of the seventeenth
century.
"But we have to pay our homage
to observers for their industry much
| further back than that" the professor
continued. more than $500 years ago
the Chaldeans were able to predict
when eclipses would occur, because
they had learned that there is a long
series of them repeated in little
over eighteen years. 1t is remarkable
that they should have been able to get
this knowledge, because any eclipse
does not cover quite the same part
of the earth's surface as the CORE
spending one which occurred eighteen
years before. They must have kept
records over at least a century, per-
| haps over many centuries, before the
cycle was discovered.
"In the map which has been issued
| by the naval observatory it is seen
that the southern boundary of the
band over which the sun will be to-
tally eclipsed just covers Duluth,
Mimi, Menominee, Mich, Dunkirk, N.
Y, Wilkes Barre, ia, and New York
| City north of Central Park. Well in
side the northern edge are Manistee,
Mich, Toronto, Ont, Auburn, Hudson,
son, N. Y, New Bedford, Mass, while
mile or two outside are Syracuse,
N Y, Springfield, Mass, and Provi-
dence, R. L
''The observations which are to be
made by the observatories within the
region of totality are not yet fully
known. Some of them will devote the
brief two minutes during which the
eclipse lasts to photographing that
marvellous fringe of light which is
never seen except at q total eclipse.
known as the corona Others will try
to get accurate positions of the moon
and also photographs of it SO that
its size and shape shall be better
known"
! Professor Brown is chairman of a
committee appointed by the American
Astronomical society to inform the
public concerning this eclipse.