Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-06-12
ECLIPSE OF SUN and MOON, PONS- )
WINNECKE COMET Will Be SEFN
BY ISRAEL KLEIN
Science Editor, NEA Service

June will be an auspicious month
for science and superstition.
The sun will be darkened, the moon
will be obliterated and a great ball
Of fire, with an enormous tail, will
appear to threaten us in the sky.
| Years ago special prayers went up,
people shut themselves in and others
even committed suicide under the
awesome spell of any of these events
Now we prepare differently for these
as great spectacles of scientific sifniti-
canoe.
! The darkening of the sun and OBJ
| liberation of the moon are eciipses of
these great bodies, and the great ball
of fire we know now as a comet.
The first event of the three to oc-
cur this month is the eclipse of the
moon. The earth will come between
| the sun and the moon, completely
shutting off direct sunlight from our
| satellite. This will occur in the night
OF June 14-15, and will be seen all
over the western hemisphere.
| First the moon will cut through
the outer shadow, or penumbra, of
! the earth and will slowly cross into
the umbra, or dark shadow which it
will reach at 1:43 a. M, eastern time,
June Is. For the next hour and a
half the moons eclipse will increase
until it will be totally eclipsed at
3:13. This totality will last 81 min
utes, after which the moon will
move slowly out of the earth's shadow,
only to be obStructed from our view
| by the coming dawn.
Comet Comes Next
A week later the day becomes the
longest of the year, with the begin
ming of summer at 5:22 on the
morning of June 90.
/ Almost at the same time, If we
happen to be up and point weak
lenSed telescope toward the rising sun,
we may be able to detect stranger
lin the sky, coming toward us. 1t is
| the Pons- Winnecke comet, discovered
/ in 1919 by a doorkeeper at the OBJ
servatory at MarSeilles and since
then noticed every six years.
| Comets are strange lot OF heav-
enly bodies, each collection OF fiery
meteors and dust particles grouped
together by some sort of electric at
traction and whirling around the sun
at an enormous speed and over q
huge ellipse, OF flat circle. Some OF
them have tails of thin gas, so thin
that we on earth don't feel their pres
ence, even when we might be passing
right through them.
The Pons- -Winnecke comet is ap-
preaching us at the rate Of "a miles
second faster than the earth is
travelling, and on June rs it will
come nearest to us--a distance OF
/ 100000 miles.
If we stay up until in the morn
ing of June 26, eastern time, we may
see the comet perhaps without aid of
telescope, but barely visible in the
sky almost directly above us 1t will
be moving southeast almost as fast
as the moon seems to move, but the
presence of a waning moon at the
same time may drown out the view
of the comet. at
Suns Eclipse June 20
| OF far more Importance to science,
although invisible in the United
States, will be the suns eclipse on
the morning of June 20. AS the sun
rises that morning. the moon will get
between it and the earth so as to
cast circular shadow 80 miles IN
diameter moving northeast across
the earth.
This shadow will start little west
Of the Bay of Biscay, cross the At
lantic and pass over the populous
! section of Lancashire in England.
1t will proceed along the length OF
Norway, the north OF SWeoen ana
Iapland, and over the desolate region
! of the Arctic ocean north OF the
siberian coast. 1t will go on oVers
the eastern end of Siberia and leave
the earth at sunset at the tip OF
! Alaska.
/ Scientists have been preparing for
this event for a whole year. Some
American scientists are going to
noints in Norway to set up instru-
ments by which they may study the
I suns corona, the great prominence
of fire that can be seen favorably
only when the moon covers the disk
of the SUM- They want to know
what materials form it and exactly
how.
j For this long preparation the SCI
entists will have no longer than 80
seconds to study this phenomenon.
4 That's the longest the eclipse Will
last in totality In England, where
British scientists will study the eclipse
! it will last only % seconds.
But enough material, 1t is hoped,
will be gained to reward the scien-
lists for their long preparations
Hoping that it's &C lear day.
Copyright, 1927, NEA Service, Inc)
100 LINDBERGH INVITATIONS
OMAHA, Neb June 10 R-Ira