The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-06-07

The phenomenon might be called the eclipse that begins tomorrow and ends today" because it starts in Asia on June g, crosses the 1n- ternational date line and ends on June 8 in Peru, the land of the -worshipping Incas, just at sun- set.
 The U. s. Navy National Geo. graphic Society expedition has es- tablished headquarters on the un- inhabited Phoenix Island, 180 miles south of the equator. The Hayden Planetarium- Grace Eclipse expedi- tion will make observations from three camps set up in Peru.
 Eclipse observations give impor- tant clues regarding the chemical elements exsting on the sun, how they are affected by great heat and very low pressures and what the more distant stars are like, The sun itself is just small star, sur passed by many of the brilliant ones in the skies.
 Moon Close To Earth
 '"The factors which make this eclipse so unusual is that on June 8, the moon will be about as close to earth as it ever comes, namely, about 100000 miles," explained Dr. Clyde Fisher, leader of the Peru expedition and curator of the Hay den Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, before his departure.
 If fc about as far from the sun as 1t ever gets, namely, about 94,00O,OOO miles. The eclipse occurs when the centers of the sun, the moon and the earth are in straight line, and the closer the moon is to us the bigger an object it becomes and the longer it hides the sun, espec- ially when the sun is almost at its maximum distance from the earth"
 To insure that low heanging clouds do not eclipse the eclipse, the Hayden Planetarium- Grace eclipse expedition has obtained the services of Major Albert w. Stevens, who in 1905 with Capt. Orvil A. Anderson set the worlds altitude record with a stratosphere flight. Major Stew ems, one of the recognized photo- graphic experts of the army air crops, will take photograps of the eclipse from an airplane placed at the expeditions disposal by Pan- American Airways.
 According to present plans, Ma jor Stevens will fly between 25,0o0 and 30,000 feet over Chimbote, Peru, in the very center of the eclipse's path to take the photo- graphs.
 pr. Fisher will take motion pie lures of the eclipse. An expert in this field, he took motion pictures of the 1880 and 1892 eclipes.
 Camp High In Andes
 One of the Peru camps has been established in the Cerro De Pasco reHion of the Andes. The three mile elevation at this camp should eliminate the menace of low clouds of the coastel region which could nullify the most elaborate precau- tions of the expedition.
 In the II tons of scientific ar- tillery" of the U. s. Navy National Geographic Society eclipse expedi- ton are a number of new devices and processes never before used in of the society said.
 Largest equipment is six spec trographs or instruments which split up light into a rainbow of various wave lengths and then pho- tographs them. This instrument will permit astronomers to gather new information about the chrom- osphere, the outer layer of gases on the sun, and the corona, a nebulous halo extending million or more miles around the sun yet visible only during a total eclipse. The corona, apparently, is not a gas but a mass of finely divided matter, scientists believe.
 Cameras To Filter Color
 Three large telescropic cameras. which can follow the suns motion across the sky, will photograph the eclipse. Filters will be used to photograph the phenomena in the the light of a single color. New color plates, never before used in eclipse work, will picture the eclipse in natural color. So sensitive are the expeditions photographic plates that a special icebox was carried in which to store them so that the tropical conditions will not damage them.
 Especially designed for the U. s. Navy National Geographic So- ciety expedition, disk with por- tions cut away will revolve at 100 revolutions minute in front Of photographic plate in one of the cameras. This device makes 1t possible to photograph the cor ona with long exposure, register ing the faint outer fringes without over-exposing the brighter por- tions near the sun.
 All the delicate instruments of the expedition had to be landed through the surf of the Phoenix islands by two native Hawaiian