The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-08-15
Astronomers Account For
About 5000 EcIipses From
1908 B, c. to 1852 A. D.

New York, Aug. 15.-(P-The total
eclipse of the sun in New England
Aug. 81 is only one of about 5000
which astronomers have located
from 1908 B. c. to the year 2l62 A. d.
They foretell eclipses or dig up
past ones by the same tables of math-
ematics, which include such things as
the Saros, nodes, perigees; or months
of odd lengths with the queer names,
sidereal, synodic, nodical, draconic
and anomalistic.
A dining table and a plate illus
trate the problem. The table is the
plane in which the earth revolveS
around the earth. A plate at the
edge is the moons orbit around the
sun.
If the plate lay flat on the table,
as a correct hostess would set 1T,
there would be total eclipse of the
sun once a month, every time the
moon swung between the edge of the
table (the earth's position) and the
center of the table (the suns posi-
tom.
But this plate is tipped at an angle
of about five degrees. One edge is
higher than the table, the other
lower, as if the plate were just tilt
ing to fall off. So the rim of the
plate (the moons orbit cuts the Ia
Bile only at two points-which as
tronomers call the modes
A total eclipse can happen only
when a point OF intersection with the
table happens to lie in direct line be-
tween earth" and "sun." But there's
worse to come! The plate is slowly
revolving like coin which has been
spun.
It takes 10 years for the moon or
bit Tor the plate) to make one OF
these revolutions. That time is the
"Saros." It results in the points of
intersection advancing so that they
complete revolution in Is years.
These are part of the motions as
tronomers reckon with in predicting
eclipses. After Aug. 81 the first in
the United States will be in 1943-
in Alaska. Up to the year 2073 there
will be u total eclipses in the United
States, and a 18th that may just
touch it.
These eclipses and their paths, &C
cording to the German authority
Oppolzer, follow:
l943-Enters Alaska at KAYAK Island
and Behring glacier.
1945-Starts east of Boise. Idaho.
passes into Canada near the
Montana North Dakota line.
l954-Starts near Grand Island, Neb..
crosses Mississippi river between
Twin Cities and Lacrosse, exits
into Canada near Marquette,
Mich.
1959-Starts at sea just east of Long
Island, probably missing U. S.
1e63-Enters Alaska near mouth of
Yukon river, passes south of
Mckinley National Park
crosses New England near site
of present eclipse. (Oppolzer's
predictions revised by U. S. Ma
val Observatory
1970-Crosses Florida near Tampa
and Orlando.
i979-Enters U. S. near mouth of Co.
lumbia river and exits near
Glacier National Park, Mont.
into Canada.
2o17-Crosses entire United States
from about Cape Blanco, Ore.
near Denver. Nashville and
Wilmington, N. C.
c024-Comes in from Mexico entering
U. S. southwest of San An
tonic, passes north of Jackson
Miss, and to sea at Atlantic
CITY.
so4HBegins near Bismarck, N. D..
passes into Canada.
2045-Enters U. S. between Los An
geles and San Francisco, passes
south of Grand Canyon, New
Orleans, and across Gulf OF
Mexico to Ft. Myers, Fla.
2052-Crosses Florida near Tampa
travelling almost due east.
2073-Passes close south of Browns
vile. Tex, to New Orleans and
out to sea at Charleston, S. C.
The paths of the eclipses are ap-
proximate, as they have not been
computed down to the last 100 miles.