Evening star., 1932-08-31
NEW ENGLAND SKY
CLEAR FOR ECLIPSE
Clouds in Vicinity, However,
Make Pictures of TotaIity
Uncertain.

CONWAY, N. H, August 81 (PO.-
AT the moment when the moon be-
gan to pass over the sun in today's
eclipse, an unobstructed view of the
sun delighted assembled astronomers
here. A large field of clouds was in
the immediate vicinity, however,
making uncertain prospects for pic
lures at totality.
BY the Associated Press
BOSTON, August 31.-Hours before
the total eclipse today the sun began
to break through in few places after
a dawn almost uniformly cloudy, foggy
or rainy over nearly every mile of the
"totality course" Particularly in New
Hampshire, where many expeditions
concentrate, there were enlarging
patches of blue sky.
Fifty-one astronomical expeditions
were lined up at dawn awaiting the
eclipse.
In string 800 miles long and SO
wide, from Montreal to Cape Cod, they
dotted the landscape, mostly in fiat New
England valleys. Their telescopes, look
ing like siege guns, field cannon and
trench mortarS, were trained low toward
the Northwest, where the moon will
cover the sun at $3.50 pm, Eastern
standard time.
woman astronomer set her telescope on
top of tower 205 feet above the surf
on the coast of Cape Cod.
Millions of Spectators.
Around these astronomers spectators
from many States maSsed in such num-
bers that State police and town con-
stabulary set up military lines to insure
freedom for scientific work.
Several million people scattered pic
mic fashion through the eclipse areas.
They came by special trains from as
far as New York City, but mostly in a
stream Of automobiles.
Never before have highway police
faced a problem like today's. Varied
instructions for safety were issued. In
some places lights were ordered on for
security. There were general orders to
stop traffic during totality.
Many New England farmer hung
out a parking sign. A few put up long
temporary fences to turn fields into
parking spaces.
Hotels Are Thronged.
Overnight reports indicated almost
every hotel in eclipse territory booked
to capacity and many farm and town
houses opening their doors to sight
seers.
A dispatch from Plymouth, VT, Sum-
mer home of Calvin Colidge, said a
proponderance of autos were heading
far to the north to catch the extra 10
seconds of totality there.
Island Pond, VT, one of the first
places to see the shadow coming across
the Canadian border, reported that sew
eral airplanes were expected to bring
visitors from Chicago. Yerkes Observ-
atory, Drake University, the University
of Indiana and a number of eminent
astronomers were attractions there.
At Island Pond and many other
places astronomers have been lecturing
to packed audiences.
Probably never before have so many
new pieces of apparatus been turned
upon an eclipse.
Electric Echo at Work.
At Seabrook Beach, N. H. an elec-
trical echo is steadily humping back
and forth between the earth and the
empty sky today. 1t is a radio signal,
which flies upward to strike the mySter-
ious, invisible Kennelly-H -Heaviside layer,
which reflects radio waves, and then
comes back to earth. An instrument to
time it approximately has been set up
by it's author. Prof G. w. Pickard.
i BY the timing device he is recording
the f1uctuating height of this radio
roof" The whole experiment is aimed
to see what will happen during total
eclipse, when the roof may go shooting
aloft or drop low like Hopping
blanket.
The majority of telescopes are meas
uring sunlight. Ordinarily the intense
glare of the sun is too overwhelming
| for sensitive instruments. total
eclipse furnishes rays in small parcels,
which can be analyzed to amazing frac-
| tionS of accuracy
Giant Test Tubes.
| Many of the instruments trained
on the eclipse today contain so many
filters for light and recently discovered
| Sensitive methods of measuring it that
| they are really more like giant test
| tubes than mere telescopes.
Astronomers call the moons shadow
sometimes the celestial express" by
which they time more exactly the move
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