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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The Recent Solar Eclipse. The tele- 

 graphic reports from the various stations 

 for observing the solar eclipse of July 29th 

 are of necessity meagre and confused. The 

 atmospheric conditions were eminently fa- 

 vorable along the line of totality, indeed in 

 the whole region west of the Mississippi, 

 while throughout the East clouds generally 

 concealed the phenomenon from view. Dr. 

 Henry Draper, stationed at Rawlins, Wyo- 

 ming Territory, took four photographs of 

 the corona, two of them with his large spec- 

 troscope. These latter are declared to be 

 " very sharp and full of detail." This is a 

 very fortunate circumstance, for it will ena- 

 ble scientific men to ascertain the precise 

 truth touching a very important difference 

 between the observations of Dr. Draper and 

 those of the other astronomers. Dr. Draper 

 reports that he finds the corona spectrum 

 marked with the usual Fraunhofer's lines of 

 the sun's spectrum. These lines were not 

 seen by the other observers, whether at the 

 same station or at the many other stations in 

 the track of the total eclipse. Mr. Lockyer, 

 in a dispatch, says that " Newcomb's party 

 and Barker made careful search for dark 



lines in the corona, but none were observed. 

 Young," he adds, " telegraphed that there 

 were no lines observed in the ultra-violet 

 at Denver." Again, most of the spectro- 

 scopic observers report the presence of 

 bright lines in the coronal spectrum, Prof. 

 Young seeing several bright bands, and in 

 particular the Kirchhoff line 1447. This 

 observation, too, is negatived by that of Dr. 

 Draper, whose photographs of the corona 

 exhibit none of these bright lines. The 

 world of science will await with profound 

 interest the minute examination of all these 

 coronal photographs ; the result will decide 

 whether, in accordance with the almost 

 unanimous opinion of physical astronomers, 

 the corona is a self-luminous liquid or solid 

 body, or only reflected sunlight. 



Prof. Langley, stationed at Pike's Peak, 

 Colorado, reports that he " saw the corona 

 elongated ; " that it " resembled the zodiacal 

 light." Further, that he " followed it a dis- 

 tance of twelve diameters of the sun on one 

 side and three on the other." This observa- 

 tion, if confirmed (and we may observe that 

 none of the other astronomers appear to 

 have confirmed it), would go to prove an ex- 

 tension of the corona into space about five 

 times greater than the highest estimate hith- 

 erto made. Search was made during the 

 eclipse for an intramercurial planet. Here- 

 in only one of the observers, Prof. Watson, 

 claims to have been successful : he reports 

 having discovered an intramercurial planet, 

 of magnitude four and a-half, in right as- 

 cension eight hours twenty-six minutes ; dec- 

 lination north 18. The solar protuber- 

 ances were much less prominent than in 

 most recent eclipses. 



Prof. Colbert, of Chicago, stationed at 

 Denver, Colorado, reports that his observa- 

 tions tend to show that the moon's path in 

 the heavens lay a little farther to the south- 

 ward than is indicated by the lunar tables, 

 or else that the estimate of the moon's di- 

 ameter is too large. Possibly both sup- 

 positions are correct. Of Edison's "tasi- 

 meter," Mr. Lockyer writes from Rawlins : 



"The tasimeter, the new instrument on 

 which Edison has been working unceasingly 

 here, has proved its delicacy. During the eclipse 

 he attached it to Thomson's galvanometer, 

 which was set to zero. When the telescope 

 carrying the tasimeter was pointed several de- 

 grees from the sun, the point of light rapidly 



