The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1927-01-06
FIVE ECLPSES
TO OCCUR in 1927
England to See First Total
Eclipse of Sun in Two
Centuries
TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPH
Astronomers Will View
Passage From Norway
Moon Disappears

Five eclipses, two of the moon
and three of the sun, will be the
principal astronomical events of
1927 though only one of them will
attract much attention from as
tronomers. This is the total eclipse
of the sun on June 20, which will
be visible I'M England, the first
there in two centuries.
The difficulty in England is that
the eclipse occurs so early in the
morning. At Liverpool, for eX-
ample, the middle of the eclipse
comes at 5:24 a. NJ, local time,
and the sun is obscured for only
few seconds.
The eclipse track, over which
the moons shadow passes, and in
which the total eclipse is seen,
passes over part of Wales, over
Liverpool bay, and then over
England from Southport, on the
bay, to Hartlepool, on the North
Sea. From : there, the shadow
crosses to Norway, crosses the
northwest border of Sweden and
Finland. and leaves the northern
coast of Norway to cross the
Arctice ocean, where it just misses
the northeastern corner of Siberia
and leaves the earth for good just
south of the Aleutian Islands.
With the chances for clear
weather in England unfavorable,
astronomers who want to be sure
of seeing it as clearly as possible
probably will go to points in Nor
way, where the weather chances
are little better, the eclipse lasts
a lite longer and occurs a little
later. The British Astronomical
Association has announced an ex-
petition of its members to AL, in
the interior of Norway.
So far, only one American as
tronomer has announced his in
tention of observing this eclipse,
DR.. Samuel A. Mitchell, director
of the Leander Mccormick OBJ
servatory of the University of
Virginia. AS the eclipse only lasts
about 40 seconds in Norway,
probably none of the other Ameri-
can eclipse observers will make
any great effort to observe it. For
DR.. Mitchell's purpose, however, a
short eclipse is as good as a long
one. He has observed eight
eclipses in different parts of the
world, chiefly to photograph the
"fash spectrum" which appears
just before and after totality.
! The two other eclipses of the
year are unimportant, because in
neither of them will the sun be
completely obscured at any place
on the earth's surface. But there
are two eclipses of the moon which
will be of considerable popular
though little scientific, interest
One of these happens on June Is,
and will be visible throughout the
United States. Its only disad-
vantage is that it will occur in the
early morning. "A solar eclipse is
caused when the moons shadow
falls on the earth; but the earth
itself casts shadow into space,
and sometimes the moon gets into
it. This is what will happen on
June Is, but the darkening of the
moon as it enters the earth s
shadow will be gradual. It will
not be until 3:13 that the total
eclipse begins, when the moon is
completely within the inner shad-
ow of the earth. The eclipse will
last until 1886.
Another eclipse of the moon will
occur in December, but it will not
be visible in the United States
However, people in India and 9TH
er parts of the eastern hemisphere
who missed the one in June, will
see the one in December.
Similar to an eclipse is an oc-
culations when the moon passes in
front of a star or planet. Every
night, of course, some stars are
occulated, but the phenomenon is
more uncommon for stars bright
enough to be seen by the unaided
eye, and occulations of planets are
, quite rare. Two Of Saturn, how
ever, will occur in 1927, though
neither will occur at night. The
first will be on January 20. Just
befofes unrise, or after sunrise in
southern parts Of the country, the
moon will pass in front of Saturn,
at 7:04 eastern standard time.
The second occulation of Saturn
will be July 10, but as the INNER
sion, or beginning, will be at a 80
in the afternoon and the emersion
1 at 5:31, it will be difficult to see
without fairly powerful telescope
aid.
More rare than an occulation by
the moon is an occulation of q
star, by one of the planets, or
very rarely, of one planet by an.
other. Several stellar OCCUPATIONS
| by planets will occur in 1927, OF
which the best for American OBJ.
servers will be on the night Oh
December Z. This is an occulatior
| by Jupiter Of faint star in the
constellation Of Pisces, the Fishes
which is not quite bright enough
to be seen without a telescope.
i Several periodic comets are ex.
pected to return during 1927, but
| it cannot be told in advance just
when they will appear, or wheth
er they vii be bright enough to b.
visible to the unaided eye. One
| of these, Fons- Winnecke's comet
, which returns to the neighborhoot
Of the earth every six years, vii