Evening star., 1937-06-09
BY CAPT. G.. r. DISHER.

BY CAPT. G. X. DISHER.
LIMA, Peru, June 9 (N.ANAO.-
In flight career Of more than a
decade I have had many wonder
full experience-seen many a sight far
beyond my powers Of description. But
the magnificent adventure those Of
us in the Pan-American-G Grace flying
observatory had yesterday afternoon
while making a Photographic record
Of the solar eclipse from point
miles above the coastal plain Of Peru
undoubtedly tops them all.
I wrote Tuesday of the elaborate
preparations We had made and OF the
full dress rehearsal" we carried out
on Monday. Yesterday we had the
splendid good fortune to far exceed
even those high expectations.
Aboard our Douglas airliner Santa
Silvia as we lifted of Limatambo Air
port at 2:3o pm (E. S. T) were
myself, E. w. Gray, Parliamentary
Grace co-pilot and radio operator;
Maj. Albert w. Stevens, assigned to
our observatory by the American Mu-
scum of Natural History, and J. w.
Runcie Of Lima, known as one Of the
best photographers on the west coast
| OF South America. AS I reported
formerly, the door and several VIM
dows had been removed from the
plane to give unimpeded Photographic
| action, and much of our early climb
was spent by Maj. Stevens and Runcie
in preparing for the severe cold they
would experience.
Camera Carefully Protected.
Gray and I wore ordinary clothes,
because We would remain in the con-
troll compartment. Runcie, In heavy
| ordinary clothing, crouched close to
the cabin heater with his two large
aerial cameras until it would be time
for him to go into action Stevens,
once We had taken off and climbed
to a cool enough altitude, stripped
of his ordinary clothes and got into
! the big, specially designed flying suit
which he used on both his balloon
ascents into the stratosphere and
then put on great, electrically heated
fur mittens. Of considerable more
concern to the major than his own
personal comfort seemed the proper
| care of his Akley audio-motion picture
camera. which he had surrounded with
blankets and hot-water bottles before
the take-off, fearing that the extreme
low temperatures we would encounter
would freeze the oil in the camera
mechanism.
AS we swung over Lima in our climb
over the airport few low, broken
! clouds were visible to the west of us,
along the ocean and to the east of us
along the tops Of the Andes. BY 3.15.
When We were over the town of Supe
and had reached q height of 10000
feet, the clouds were thicker and a
general haze was apparent below US
Ahead and above, however, visibility
promised perfection
| Climbing steadily toward the north
ward, we reached $4,000 feet over
Huarmey at 3:45. Passing back into
the rear compartment while GRAY
took the controls, I found Mai.
Stevens and Runcie puttering about
their cameras, taping up every pos
slole crack that might permit light
leaks. Stevens. like mother with
delicate child, feared his camera
was getting too warm and was taking
of some of the blanket coverings. All
OF his tools were carefully laid out
along the camera bench beside him
or were hanging on wire hooks from
the cabin ceiling. Strangely enough,
| ~ ~
clouds ahead and below us, because
one of the most important contribu-
tions our observatory could make to
science would be to catch photographs
of the eclipse shadow as it speeds
across the earth.
Temperature Falls Fast.
BY AIS We had reached the vicinity
| OF Chimbote, which would be our gen.
eral station during the eclipse, and
were cruising at height of 1900
feet. Runcie now started arranging
his cameras opposite the windows.
Maj. Stevens, jubilant that beneath
us now lay big bank Of clouds, un-
limbered his movie camera in the
doorway
Suddenly, through the dark glasses
each of us was wearing small nick
appeared in the bottom Of the red
fire ball now almost due west of us.
At 4:20 the bite the moon seemed
to be taking out of the sun grew
very distinct, appearing at point
2 or 3 degrees from the exact bot
tom. We started climbing steadily
to. be at our determined altitude by
the time of totality. Our engines
were performing perfectly. AS we
passed 10000 feet the temperature
dropped to 10 degrees below zero,
centigrade.
At 4:45 we turned west and headed
out to sea about 10 miles south of
the Guanape Islands, where fine low
bank of clouds lay over the coast. BY
5 pm. we had reached our $4,000
feet. The temperature had dropped
to l8 degrees below and we were in
position to watch Mister Sun get in
trouble with the moon.
At sos the impression struck us
that, I am told, is common to all
eclipse observers-that the moon
would never be big enough to cover
the entire suns disk. At 5:l8, how
ever, it looked as though some one
with huge mouth had swallowed
the sun entire, save where the great
and really awesome streamers of the
corona made rainbow -colored pictures
round the dead black center of the
moons disk. To the north of us
towering mass Of thunderclouds had
developed rapidly and was flashing
lightning The sky had turned a
deep royal blue, stars appearing bril-
liantly. Glancing at gray in the weird
light, noticed great clouds of steam
coming out of our mouths, so low
was the temperature even in our con-
troll cabin. AS We turned south to
remain in the path Of totality, we
saw that the light was gradually
increasing once more.
Speed of Express Train.