Manchester Memoirs, Vol. I. ( 1 906), No. 1. 



THE WILDE LECTURE. 

 VIL "Total Solar Eclipses." 



By Professor H. H. Turner, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Delivered March 20th, igo6. 



To those who have never seen a total eclipse of the 

 sun, but have seen partial eclipses, the importance 

 attached to the former may seem somewhat puzzling. 

 A partial eclipse is an interesting but not a very striking 

 phenomenon : we watch the queerly-shaped disc of the 

 sun through smoked glass (or by reflection from water) 

 and we may have seen the crescent-shaped patches of 

 light which filter through the trees ; but there is not 

 much suggestion of an astronomical opportunity differing 

 essentially in character from that afforded by full day- 

 light. Those, however, who have been fortunate enough 

 to see the sun completely hidden by the moon's disc 

 know that, when the hiding is complete, there flashes 

 into view a spectacle entirely strange, a wonderful halo 

 or glory of light of a diffuse character which has been 

 called the Corona. Close to the sun this light is very 

 bright — not by any means so bright as a portion of the 

 ordinary sun, but still brilliant compared with the outer 

 Corona. Often there are jets of especially brilliant light 

 of rosy colour, and this colour may be traced, close to 

 the black central disc of the moon, for some distance 

 round the circumference. On the Chromosphere, as this 

 close envelope is called, an important observation was 



May 26th, igo6. 



