36 



ASTRONOMY, PROGRESS OF, IN 1890. 



fortunately, as has often happened, clouds at the 

 moment of totality thwarted all efforts to in- 

 crease our scanty knowledge of the sun's immedi- 

 ate rerroundings. Secretary Tracy, of the Navy 

 Department, plaeed the entire management of the' 

 affair in the hands of Prof. David P. Todd, Di- 

 ivetor nf the observatory of Amherst College, and 

 ral astronomers and scientists made up the 

 personnel of the expedition. The steamship 

 I'ensaeola " was detailed to transport the party 

 and iii>truments to the west coast of Africa, 75 

 niili-s south of St. Paul de Loanda. The station 

 ted was on a bald bluff 150 yards from the 

 beach. The novel and ingenious manner in which 

 tin- instruments were mounted and automatically 

 manipulated reflects great credit upon theastron- 

 ouiff in charge. An equatorial stand on a large 

 seali- (Knglish styleof mounting) was constructed 

 on which were mounted nearly all the instru- 

 m.-nis. A split polar axis eleven feet long was 

 made of six-inch wrought-iron tubes placed two 

 feet apart and firmly fixed on cast-iron supports. 

 On the polar axis were arranged two mirrors and 

 twenty-three telescopes including a finder or 

 directing telescope of ?i inches aperture with a 

 high-power eye-piece for the correct pointing of 

 all. As the latitude of the station was but 10 

 south of the equator, the polar axis was nearly 

 horizontal, which greatly enhanced the value of 

 this unique system of mounting. This axis and 

 thf instruments were moved by a substantial 

 driving-clock. These plans covered a wide range 

 of work, but were frustrated by a single cloud. 

 Just before the first and after the fourth con- 

 tacts eighty photographs were taken for the 

 purpose of testing the working of the numerous 

 automatic devices, and between the first and 

 second contacts thirty pictures of the partiaily 

 eclipsed Min were secured. 



Lick Observatory Expedition. Through the 

 liberalit y of Col. Charles P. Crocker,Prof. Edward 

 S. 1 1 olden, Director of Lick Observatory, was 

 enabled to send Profs. Burnham and Schaeberle, 

 of his staff, to Cayenne, French Guiana, South 

 A tnerica, for the observation of the same eclipse. 

 Tin-so gentlemen were there joined by Charles 

 Korkw.-ll, of Tarry town, N. Y., housing a reflect- 

 or while they used two refractors. Clouds 

 with rain prevented the first contact from being 

 seen ; but when the sun was about two thirds 

 covered by the advancing moon, the sky sudden- 

 ly cleared. p]ach of the three observers secured 

 four negatives during the total phase. Of these 

 plates I'rof. 1 1 olden says, " They are success- 

 ful and of sufficient number." 



English Krlipse Party. This expedition 

 l"-:itt-d on Isle de Salut, 22 miles northward 

 from ('.-lyi-iMii-, hut. its success was imbittered by 

 th<- death of Futhrr Perry, its chief, who fell a 

 vii-t iui to a prevailing disease, dying the day 

 ufii-r the eclipse. The photographs made by him 

 \vi-iv i-arri.-d to England, and there developed 

 and f.iunil to posses gn-at value regarding the 

 sun's corona. Capt. Abney, who manipulated 

 them, says, "From a, cursory examination I 

 should sav that the corona close to the limb of 

 Ih.- sun is about 200 times brighter than the 

 corona half a diameter away." 



HeteOFS. A remarkable meteor, from which 

 Issued a shower of stones, pasM-d over the States 

 of Iowa and Minnesota between five and six 



o'clock P. M., on May 2, 1890. The explosion oc- 

 curred eleven miles north of Forest City, Iowa, 

 and the fragments were scattered over the county 

 of Winnebago. The largest piece weighed 104 

 pounds. A stone from this meteor, weighing 66 

 pounds, fell in the same county, on a farm owned 

 by John Goddovel, but was found by Peter Hug- 

 land, who sold it to Prof. Newton H. Winchell. 

 The owner of the farm sued for possession of the 

 meteorite, and the lower court decided in the 

 farmer's favor, but the case has been appealed. 

 It is of the stone variety, and analysis shows it 

 to contain silica, iron, aluminum, lime, and mag- 

 nesium. Another stone-fall took place in Wash- 

 ington County, Kansas, on June 25, 1890, at 

 12.45 P. M. This" also was of the stone class. It 

 fell in Farmington Township, on a farm owned 

 by Lydia V. Kelsey, but rented by J. 11. January, 

 who, at the time, as he says, was under a wago'n 

 making repairs, but came out at the sound of the 

 approaching meteor; he had hardly gained an 

 erect position when the stone struck the ground 

 a few rods distant, throwing up the earth to a. 

 height of 40 feet, and outward a distance of 

 about 25 feet, and imbedded itself to a depth of 

 4 feet, from which, three hours later, he un- 

 earthed it, and, though so short a time had 

 elapsed since its fall, it was cold. A lady, also, 

 who was near, testified to having seen it strike 

 the ground. Either from unequal expansion by 

 heat or by concussion with the hard substratum 

 that arrested its motion, the stone was found to 

 be cracked. It was not a fragment, as is often 

 found, but an entire meteor. Its weight was 148 

 pounds. If, as is alleged, the noise of its flight 

 was heard before the stone struck the earth, we 

 are confronted with the marvelous statement 

 that a stone may fall from space and yet reach 

 the earth with a velocity less than that of sound, 

 which is an impossibility. From this case also a, 

 curious legal question has arisen as to the own- 

 ership of aerolites falling on land owned by one 

 person and leased by another, and the decision, 

 of the courts will be watched with interest. 



The origin of the stones falling from the sky, 

 though much discussed, is still regarded as one 

 of the profound mysteries with which astronomy 

 abounds. That there is no connection between 

 aerplitic stones and shooting stars is generally 

 agreed. During the extraordinary star showers 

 of 1799, 1833, 1866, 1867, and 1872, not a stone 

 was known to reach the earth. Shooting stars 

 appear to be of cometary origin, while aerolites 

 seem more likely to be planetoidal. The scien- 

 tific and secular journals, during the year, have 

 announced the usual number of bright meteors 

 and bolides, but they do not possess sufficient 

 interest to warrant their insertion here. 



Double Stars. In the " Astronomische 

 Nachrichten," Nos. 2,929, 2,930, for 1889, Mr. 

 Burnharn, of Lick Observatory, published a list 

 of 54 double stars discovered with the 36-inch 

 refractor, together with measurements of nearly 

 50 previously catalogued. Several are new com- 

 ponents of well-known pairs (thus making them 

 triple), and they are generally distinguished for 

 their closeness or excessive faintness. In No. 

 2. !).">(> of the same journal he has given a table 

 of 61 new pairs and measures of 77 others. The 

 grand total of his 16 published lists is 1,154. 

 They were discovered with telescopes of 6, 12, 



