48 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [NOV. 25^ 



It is evident that every effort should be made to observe well 

 the eclipse coming in December, J 889. Dming the year 1889 

 there occur five eclipses, three of the sun and two of the moon. 

 Of the solar eclipses the first was total and visible in the western 

 part of the United States on January 1st. Many important ob- 

 servations and photographs were obtained, and described at 

 length in the daily papers and also before this Academy.' The 

 second solar eclipse was annular, occurring June 37ih ; its path 

 began in the South Atlantic Ocean, about a thousand miles south 

 of the island of St. Helena, and the same distance west of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. The path passed northeasterly to a point 

 a hundred miles north of Madagascai', thence southeasterly, 

 leaving the earth about one thousand miles west of Australia. 

 Observations were made in Africa by astronomers from Cape- 

 town, Drs. Gill and Auwers, who obtuined with the heliometer 

 two hundred measures of cusps and of lines at right angles to 

 line of cusp?.' 



The eclipse of December 22d, unfortunately, is visible in its 

 totality phase only along the northeast coast of South America, 

 in the Middle Atlantic Ocean, and in Africa. Four places have 

 been selected by astronomers for their observations. 



1st, The southern end of the island of Trinidad, at Point 

 Icacos. Here totality begins at 7.06 a.m. and lasts Im. 46s., 

 the sun being at an altitude of only 12°, 



The second station is at Cayenne, in French Guiana, where 

 totality begins at 7.51 a.m. and lasts 2m. 3s., with the sun 24° 

 high. 



The path then crosses the Atlantic without passing over any 

 islands, and at a point in mid-ocean about 300 miles south of 

 Ascension Island the duration of totality is a maximum and is 

 4m. 15s.' 



The third place available for an observing-station is where the 

 path strikes the West African coast. Here the totality phase 

 begins at 2.56 p.m. and lasts 3m. 12s., the sun being 46° high.^ 



A fourth point has been selected away from the coast up the 

 Kwanza River. 



Experience — and dearly bought — has taught the astronomers 

 that it is best for one man to attempt to do but one thing during 

 an eclipse. Unfortunately it happens that most eclipse observers 

 are novices and are apt to forget this lesson of the experience of 

 others, — they attempt too much and lose all. 



* Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. VIII.,. 

 Ncs. 7-8, p. 156. 



^The Observatory, August, 1889, p. 333. 



" American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, 1889, p. 418. 



* Monthly Notices Royal Astronomical Society, 1888, No. 7, p. 318. 



