40 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



through _ 



hand it is difficult to conceive of an atmos- 

 phere dense enough to produce these effects, 

 und yet so transparent that the edges of the 



utes later the next picture was taken. No change 

 the temperature. Third, fourth, and fifth 

 at three, four, and five minutes apart. No 

 change still in the appearance of the earth, no tailing 



yet 



full moon are perfectly distinct, and that the O f tn e temperature. Sixth picture forty-nine minutes 



of the sun during an eclipse should be 



1, D116 lUilitgt? gitH-4.Llt*AAjr WWA*. ** ^vwv****-.* ** v ^ .. *- vu 



gives only negative results, and cannot be r difflcult to describe. It seemed as though they 

 carded as proving that the light is reflected. em i tte a light that had been stored within. v ^ "- 

 KTevidence of the spectroscope needs con- light was not like any other that we - 

 firmation, since the dark lines may have been 

 invisible owing to the feeble light of the corona. 

 But, if the spectroscopic observations were 

 correct, the self-luminous character of the co- 

 rona is established ; and the thermometric and 

 actinic experiments point toward a lunar at- 

 mosphere as the cause of the corona. The ab- 

 sence of a lunar atmosphere is so generally ^ ~^ oc ~ k O f foraging geese now marched by, home- 

 admitted that the author suggests its existence W ard bound, and evidently*wondering at the short- 

 ness of these degenerate days. A ghastliness rested 

 upon the faces of our corps of operators. Pictures were 

 then taken at intervals of two and one minutes,_ at 

 which time the crescentic margin of the sun, remain- 

 ing unobscured, was but a tenuous line, passing one- 



, and a falling of one degree in temperature. 



foliage gradually took a peculiar hue, which is 

 Ti seemed as though they 

 Yet the 

 seen. 



It* had "a peculiar bronze-like, lurid tint, that was 

 weird-like and ghostly. 



Next picture, four minutes later ; growing, darker ; 

 birds here seemed agitated, and acted as though they 

 had made a mistake in time ; swallows began to col- 

 lect in flocks. Six more pictures were taken in nine- 

 teen minutes, and darkness still growing on the 

 earth. Four minutes later, and sixteen after five ? the 

 thermometer fell to 72, and stars became visible. 



, 



only with reluctance, and as the most natural 

 explanation of the phenomena observed. 



Professor C. F. Himes reports some interest- 

 ing facts about meteoric appearances seen dur- 

 ing the eclipse. He says that Mr. Zeutmayer, 



third or one-fourth around the sun. Forty-five sec- 



examining the ground glass of the camera onds, and the eclipse is total, and another exposure 

 .> .,:*: rtT1 n f is made. A flaming orange and red corona was 



me to time, to notice the position of 

 the image of the sun, called the author's atten- 

 tion to small luminous bodies like meteors, 

 which were crossing the dark image of the 

 moon from cusp to cusp. Subsequently, they 

 were seen to pass over from outside of the 

 field on to the image of the sun, where, of 

 course, they were lost, always coming from the 

 same side. The observers were led by this 

 circumstance to regard them as most likely to 

 be optical illusions, perhaps insects with trans- 

 parent wings or bodies ; but the fact, that ob- 

 servers at other places report a shower of me- 

 teors during the eclipse, between the moon 

 and the earth, which seemed to be identical in 

 their appearance with those observed by the 

 author, leads Professor Himes to suppose that 

 the objects seen by Mr. Zeutmayer and him- 

 self may have been meteors. At any rate, he 

 concludes that the apparition was caused by 

 objects not less than two thousand feet distant. 

 Dr. J. Gardiner contributes to the Cincinnati 

 Gazette an interesting account of his experi- 

 ences in photographing the eclipse at Bedford, 

 Ind. He had made careful preparations for the 

 occasion, and had the assistance of a compe- 

 tent corps of photographic artists. Some of 

 the results of the observations are thus de- 

 scribed : 



made. A flaming orange and red corona was 

 visible about the margin of the moon, shooting its 

 rays out seemingly a distance equal to hall' the diam- 

 eter of the sun. The whole face of the moon had a 

 dusky hue, like old copper, and was visibly globe- 

 shaped. The scene was awfully sublime, and pro- 

 duced a sensation similar to that which I have felt in 

 witnessing a great battle. Chimney-swallows circled 

 in the air above the court-house in a dense column, 

 several hundred feet in height. A sudden rush of 

 wind marked the moment of totality, and one ther- 

 mometer in the open air showed a falling of 5; 

 another, attached to the shady side of a dead tree 

 standing in the sunshine, showed a variation of 14 

 in the course of an hour. 



Birds went to roost ; domestic fowls retired to their 

 perches, and a premature darkness a darkness dif- 

 ferent from that of any other gave the earth a more 

 sombre mantle than that of night. 



Two more pictures were attempted at intervals of 

 a minute each, and then a line of the sun's margin 

 emerged, and light once more flooded the face of the 

 earth. A cheer ran out along the street, and the 

 sublimest spectacle of the generation was drawing to 

 a close. During the time of the greatest obscuration a 

 bright bead-like body was observed at the right lower 

 limb of the sun, which sent out a fan-shaped, fiery tail 

 equal to one-third of the breadth of the sun itself. This 

 part was all we succeeded in getting photographed 

 during totality. We hope that a future examination 

 of the enlarged prints will show it to be of more value 

 to science than if we had succeeded in getting the 

 whole corona. As darkness suddenly shut in the 

 earth like a curtain (during the greatest obscuration), 

 so it flashed out instantaneously into light as the sun 

 emerged. Men's faces looked like the faces of ne- 

 groes, and some amusing mistakes occurred on the 

 streets, by persons thinking others they met were 

 " American citizens of African descent." As the 

 darkness was thickest, the katydids chirped their 

 nocturnal notes, but hushed into silence as soon as 



Our corps were all in place ready for business ; 

 when, at four o'clock and twenty-one and a half min- 

 utes, contact was observed in the magnified image on 

 the ground glass. A half-minute later the watchino- 

 crowds on the streets caught sight of it, and a low 



murmur, swelling gradually into a shout, heralded they found that they were " victims of misplaced 

 Up to this time no noticeable change had confidence." Twenty-one pictures were taken, seven- 

 en place in the whole range of nature. At the teen before and during totality, and four after. Two 

 , sign of contact, I called for a plate, which was attempts during the total phase were failures, but one 

 coated at once, sensitized and passed to me. The other gave the bright prominence before described. 



