ECLIPSE COMMITTEE. 69 



The rest of the Expedition, inchiding myself, took passage on 

 board the U.S.S. Tofua, which left Sydney on 28th March, proceeded 

 via Fiji and Samoa, and arrived at Vavau on the evening of 13th April. 



At Vavau the authorities gave us facilities and concessions, by 

 which we were enabled to settle comfortably in camp and to install 

 our equipment without difficulty. 



The equipment consisted principally of : — 



4^ Photoheliograph, Melbourne Observatory. 



4* Cooke Equatorial Telescope, with two large portrait lens 

 canRras attached (Melbourne Observatory). 



One Coronograph (Perth Observatory). 



One Coronograph (Adelaide Observatory), with IG'' Coelostat, 

 lent by the British Eclipse Committee. 



One Coronograph (Sydney University), with 12" Coelostat. 



A large Altazimuth for time determinations (Perth Observa- 

 tory), chronometers, several smaller cameras, meteoro- 

 logical instruments (lent by the Commonwealth Weather 

 Bureau), and various other auxiliary apparatus. 



On the morning of the eclipse all instruments were in good 

 adjustment and working order, and the observers had been thoroughly 

 drilled for the occasion ; but the weather was unpromising, and the 

 face of the sun was obscured intermittently by passing clouds up to 

 the beginning of and during the total phase. Each observer, however, 

 accomplished his allotted programme, and 45 plates were exposed 

 during the three and a half minutes of totality. The plates were 

 developed ou the same evening, and the results obtained were found 

 to be much better than it was first expected. 



The form of the corona was found to correspond to the type which 

 had been previously observed in the years of minimum solar spots, 

 which is an additional important fact to our still imperfect knowledge 

 of this solar phenomenon. 



At my request the Union Steam-ship Company permitted Captain 

 Oeorge Holford, master of the Union S.S. Tofua, who was expected to 

 be ^vith his ship in South Seas at the time of the eclipse, within 

 practicable reach of the belt of totalitv, to proceed to a spot in latitude 

 20^ 57' S., longitude 176'' 19' W., to observe the eclipse, which he did 

 with success, ha-'/ing met with very fine and clear weather. 



His sketch of the corona shows the characteristic equatorial 

 extensions to more than one and a half diameters of the sun's disc, 

 and is a remarkably good record of the phenomenon. 



At Vavau the eclipse was also observed by : — 



An Ofiicial British Expedition, under Rev. Father Cortie, S.J., 

 of the Stonyhurst Observatory, Lancashire, on behalf of the Joint 



