810 Mr. W. H. M. Christie [April 22, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, April 22, 1898. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S. Treasurer and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



W. H. M. Christie, Esq. C.B. M.A. F.R.S. Astronomer Eoyal. 



The Becent Ecli^pse. 



After the failure through bad weather, which was the fate of nearly 

 all the expeditions in the eclipse of 1896, widely spread though they 

 were from Norway through Siberia to Japan, it was felt that every 

 eflfort should be made to occupy as many stations as practicable along 

 the track of the recent eclipse of 1898, January 22, which, starting 

 from Equatorial Africa, crossed India and ended in the Chinese Empire. 

 It was at first hoped that it would have been possible to send one of 

 the observing parties to Africa, but it was not found practicable to 

 establish stations in Somali Land, and thus the field was narrowed to 

 the shadow track through Central India. Practically the choice of 

 stations was confined to the neighbourhood of the places where the 

 various railway lines intersect the central line of the shadow track, 

 and of these the more westerly had the advantage of giving slightly 

 longer duration of totality. Fortunately the weather chances were 

 unusually favourable in the recent eclipse, the prospect of clear sky 

 at that time of year in Central India being so great that Mr. Eliot, 

 the Meteorological Reporter for India — to whom we are so much 

 indebted for his collection of the weather statistics — is said to have 

 put the chances at 25 to 1 in favour of a fine day for the eclipse. 



The Joint Eclipse Committee of the Royal and Royal Astro- 

 ■nomical Societies arranged for four parties of observers : — 



1. Sir Norman Lockyer, whose main equipment was prismatic 

 cameras, at Viziadrug. 



2. Professor Turner and myself to take large and small scale 

 photographs of the corona. Karad (south of Poena) was originally 

 selected, but owing to the outbreak of plague there the Bombay 

 Government advised its abandonment, and Sahdol (a station further 

 east and with somewhat shorter duration of totality), on the railway 

 connecting Katni and Bilaspur, was substituted. 



3. Captain Hills and Mr. Newall. Slit spectroscopes and photo- 

 graphs of corona at Pulgaon. 



4. Dr. Copeland to take large scale photographs of the corona 

 with a lens of 40 feet focus. 



Besides these there was a party under the auspices of the British 

 Astronomical Association at Talni, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. 



