Evening star., 1936-07-21
WEATHER GAMBLE
ON ECLIPSE E|SL0ST
DR.. Paul A. McNaIIy Returns
From Futile Trip to U. S.
S, R. for Observation

Good craftsmanship and a gam
bler's willingness to stake everything
on the wheels of chance are among
the requisites of an astronomer.
I'VE gambled on the weather ana
lost" was the laughing comment yes
terday of DR.. Paul A. McNally, s. j.,
director of the Georgetown University
Observatory in explaining on his re-
turn from the Siberian solar eclipse
expedition how he had made round
trip of 10000 miles to see rainstorm.
THE day before the total eclipse
Of June 10 was o. K. for observations. !"
he said, "and the day following was
perfect, without single cloud in the
sky. It was just our hard luck to
have rain on the one day when we
had staked everything on clear
weather .,
DR.. McNally revealed it wasn't such
d bad gamble for during the month
he was at his station in the Siberian
wilds, "the weather was perfect 80
per cent of the time" He had chosen
carefully the site at Kustanai for that
reason.
Work Spoiled by Rain.
While DR.. McNally admitted that
4he rain on June 19 had spoiled the
work for the Georgetown-Nationa
Geographic Society expedition as ii
did for many others, he was not COM
pletely disappointed. Although the
sun was almost totally obscured by the
clouds, he managed to get some accu-
rate determinations of the second ano
third contacts with special electrom-
,eter which the expedition carried
de has not yet completely reduced the
photographs he made of the light
intensity but hoped for good results.
DR.. McNally recalled that when he
left Washington last April, with five
tons of equipment, he had pointed out
st was gamblers chance" that they
were willing to take.
Our expedition was one of the best
equipped in the field" he said, land
with good weather We had hoped tc
duplicate the Photographic records
made of the eclipse at Fryeburg, Me.
in 1882. But luck was against u.s."
It took the expedition month o1
hard work to establish its base OF op-
'erations. Kustanai, where the OBJ
servation was set up, is 500 miles east
OF Moscow.
The cooperation OF the Soviet
Russian scientific organizations was
excellent" Dr. McNally said. "They
went out of their way to lend every
one helpful assistance"
Broadcasts Not Made.
The Georgetown and Harvard ex-
petitions were to have broadcast re-
ports of the eclipse Immediately after
the 127-second spectra took place, but
on account of static conditions, as ex-
planned here, the broadcasts were not
made.
I'VE tried from $3.50 pm. to mid
night" DR.. McNally explained. "bu'
7 think the real reason why the broad
casts were not made was the reluc.
tance of the Soviet officials to admit
that the observations generally made
Of the eclipse were disappointing.
The Georgetown astronomer. WHIT
had made such notable record dur
ing the 1882 eclipse, was busy yester
day preparing his report for the Ma
tional Geographic Society, which hae
promoted and co-operated in the ex'
pedition. He was accompanied tt
Washington by Rev. Emeran j. Kol-
meyer. S. j., his chief assistant anc
Rev. r. J. Smith, S. j.. both Of George.
town University, who shared in the
disappointments of the expedition
Two of the other assistants will return
later. They are Carl Striegel Of the
Geographic Society and W. Robert
Moore of Georgetown. The former is
remaining for while in Germany and
the latter made a trip to Southern
France.