Evening star., 1936-06-14
BY DIR. CLYDE FISHER.


BY DR.. CLYDE FISHER.
AK-BULAK, Siberia, June 13 (N.A.
N.A).-The total eclipse of the sun
June 19 will be observed by more than
a dozen astronomical expeditions sta
toned along the path of totality in
Siberia. Most of these expeditions
are from the Soviet Union. One is
from CzechoSlovakia, at least one from
Japan and two are from the United
States.
One American group is from the
National Geographic Society and
Georgetown University, under the
leadership of DR.. Paul McNally. The
other American group, probably the
largest single expedition in the field,
is the Harvard-M. I. T. expedition.
1t is made up of about a score of
scientists, not only from Harvard Uni
versity and Massachusetts, Institute
of Technology, but also from Rutgers
College Vassar College, Ohio State
University and the Hayden Plan
Natural History This expedition is
under the leadership of DR.. Donald
H. Menzel of the Harvard Observatory.
The path of totality extends from
the Mediterranean Sea-where the
eclipse begins at SunriSe-acroSS
Greece, thence across the U. S. S. R.,
including European Russia and ST.
IBERIA; across Northern Japan and out
into the Pacific Ocean, where the
eclipse ends at sunset.
Atmospheric Disturbance.
Greece is not a good place from
which to observe the eclipse, because
the sun will be so low in the eastern
sky Nor will Northern Japan be
suitable place, because the sun will be
so low, this time in the western sky.
In the portion of the path between
these limits the sun will have greater
elevation, and consequently the at
mospheric disturbances near the hori-
zon will be avoided.
On account of the probable weather
conditions. as well as the reasons sug-
geSted above, the Harvard-M. I. T. EX-
pedition will be located near this little
town, Ak-Bulak, southeast of Oren-
burg, which is the center of the cattle
country of old European Russia.
Ak-Bulak is little way over into ST.
IBERIA in the old Russian Cossack
country.
A large part of the work of this ex-
pedition will be spectroscopic studies
of the sun-a check-up on the ele-
ments in the suns atmosphere and an
examination of the states of this mat
ter. Photographs of the flash-spec-
trum will be made.
In this connection it will be re-
called that the element helium was
discovered on the sun, by means of
the spectroscope, at the total eclipse of
1868, long before it was discovered on
the earth. In fact, it was not until
1895 that Ramsey found helium on the
earth. Now it is SO common that we
fill our dirigible balloons with it. 1t is
of interest to note that helium got its
name from the Greek word for sun,
since for a long time this gas was
known only on the sun.
A group from the Cruft High-Ten-
sion Laboratory of Harvard University,
together with a group from the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, will
study the ionosphere, that variable but
most important region or layer of at
mosphere above the stratosphere.
Changes in this layer have profound
effects on radio transmission. BY
measuring the effect of cutting off Of
ultraviolet light by the moon and by
cutting off of corpuscular radiation
(high-speed electrons), which prob
ably travels at lower speed than light,
1t is expected that information will be
gained of value in the ever-growing
science of radio communication.
Photographing Purpose.
I will devote myself to photograph
ing the visible features of the eclipse
the partial phases, Baily's beams, the
corona, etc.-as well as utilizing the
equipment used by the various scien-
fists. In photographing the corona,
which is universally considered the
most beautiful feature of a total
eclipse of the sun, I will use a tele-
scope, because this instrument has
greater light-gathering power than an
ordinary camera and will give larger
image.
After the eclipse it is my intention
to travel more than l 900 miles farther
toward the northeast in order to visit
the famous meteor craters in North
Central Siberia. The fall which pro-
duced this group of craters occurred
June 30, 1908, and was observed by
thousands of persons, and no doubt
tens of thousands heard the tremen-
dous attendant noises. 1t is safe to
say that more persons observed this
fall of meteors than have ever OBJ
served any other meteoric fall in his
tory. This is, in fact, the greatest
known fall in historic times.
The Paragraphs in Kirensk, on the
River Lena, and in Irkutsk, both of
which are hundreds of miles away,
recorded the air wave and the seismo-
graphs in the deep cellars of the
1rkutsk Observatory recorded the
earth wave, due to the impact, which
was felt far in the north. The first |
report to reach the newspapers of |
this great fall, which occurred on a
Summer day % years ago, was brought |
by the passengers of a train near
Kansk.
Twenty years later the first scien-
tific expedition penetrated to the
locality of the fall, which was found |
to be near uppeE stretches of the |
stony Tunguska River, right trib-
utary of the Yenisei.
Crater-Like Basin.
The expedition was in charge of
Prof. L. A. Kulik, geologist, of Lenin-
grad, who found huge, crater-ike
basin, scattered about in which were
scores of small cavities or craters, !
mostly from 10 to so yards across.
This basin, which was several kilo- |
meters in diameter, together with the
xIitlaiIa caiiSad l