SUN, ECLIPSE OF. 



711 



the structure of the corona was simply exquisite and 

 strongly developed. I at once exclaimed, "Like 

 Orion !_" Thousands of interlacing filaments, vary- 

 ing in intensity, were visible, in fact I saw an exten- 

 sion of the prominence-structure in cooler material 

 This died out somewhat suddenly some 5' or 6' from 

 the sun, I could not determine the height precisely, 

 and then there was nothing; the rays so definite to 

 the eye had, I supposed, been drawn into nothing- 

 ness by the power of the telescope ; but the great 

 fact was this, that close to the sun, and even for 5' 

 or 6' away from the sun, there was nothing like a 

 ray, or any trace of any radial structure whatever to 

 be seen. While these observations were going on, 

 the eclipse terminated for the others, but not for me. 

 For nearly three minutes did the coronal structure 

 impress itself on my retina, until at last it faded 

 away in the rapidly-increasing sunlight. 



Captain Maclear, who was of the Lockyer 

 party, looked at the corona with the naked 

 eye at the moment of totality, and saw a bright 

 glory round the moon, stellar-form, six-pointed, 

 something like the nimbus painted about a 

 saint's head, extending to a diameter and a 

 half. Looking through the finder, he noticed 

 the same form, but very much reduced in size 

 and brilliancy ; then examined it with a 6-inch 

 object-glass, and saw nothing but a bright glow 

 around the moon, not higher than one of the 

 large prominences then visible. The color of 

 the corona appeared to him a light pinkish 

 white, very brilliant, the rest of the sky and 

 every thing else around having a bluish tinge. 



Mr. Pringle, stationed at the same point, 

 made the following memoranda of his studies 

 of the corona : 



I next observed with the naked eye : corona ap- 

 peared radial, of a purplish-white color, brightest 

 near the body of the moon ; no very long rays per- 

 ceptible. On holding the head sideways, rays of 

 corona remained permanent, showing none to be due 

 to defect of vision. Next observed corona through 

 2i" finder of refractor. Structure well defined, wavy, 

 nebulous, permanent. Remarked a curiously-curved 

 portion of corona, divided by a partial rift from an 

 oblique ray. I should imagine the corona to extend 

 about 7' beyond the sun, but did not accurately esti- 

 mate the distance while observing. When thirty 

 seconds of totality remained. I went to finder of equa- 

 torial reflector; structure of corona not so apparent 

 with higher power. Several prominences visible; 

 one of large size, structure similar to that of corona. 

 At about twelve seconds before end of totality, a 

 perceptible brightening along the edge of the moon 

 on the side of appearance ; a few seconds before end 

 of totality, I went to one prism corona spectroscope 

 attached to Vi" reflector. At the end of totality, a 

 considerable number of bright lines flashed in (what 

 proportion of the whole 1 cannot say, perhaps a 

 third). The line near D noticeably bright ; contin- 

 uous spectrum faintly visible a moment before the 

 sun's limb showed. After totality observed at finder, 

 the summit of a large prominence opposite the point 

 of sun's reappearance visible for several seconds after 

 totality. 



Perhaps the most important observations 

 made were those of Prof. L. Eespighi, who 

 was fortunate in having a prism of uncommon 

 excellence. On the day before the eclipse he 

 had, by means of the direct-vision spectroscope, 

 ascertained the state of the chromosphere, 

 and the protuberances, and found the latter 

 small, in a condition which seemed to him to be 



favorable for examining tho corona during the 

 eclipse. At the instant of totality, tho field of 

 the telescope exhibited, lie says, a most as- 

 tonishing^ spectacle. The chromosphere at the 

 edge, which was the last to be eclipsed sur- 

 mounted for a space of about 60 by two 

 groups of prominences, one on the right and 

 the other on the left of the point of contact 

 was reproduced in the four spectral lines, C, 

 D 3 , F, and G, with extraordinary intensity of 

 light, and the most surprising contrast of the 

 brightest colors. 



The green zone surrounding the disk of the moon 

 was the brightest, the most uniform, and the best 

 defined. The red zone was also very distinct and 

 well defined, while the blue zone was faint and in- 

 distinct. The green zone was well defined at the 

 summit, though less bright than at the base ; its 

 form was sensibly circular, and its height about 6' 

 or 7'. The red zone exhibited the same form and 

 approximately the same height as the green, but its 

 light was weaker and less uniform. The height of 

 the green zone was estimated by comparison with 

 tho moon's diameter, and from the observed distance 

 of the spectral lines of the prominences. 



These colored zones shone out upon a faintly 

 illuminated ground, without any marked trace of 

 color. If the corona contained *rnys of any other 

 kind, their intensity must have been so feeble that 

 they were merged in the general illumination of the 

 field. 



Soon after the middle of the total eclipse, there 

 appeared on the eastern limb, at about 110 from the 

 north point, a fine group of prominences formed of 

 jets rather low but very bright, some rectilinear, 

 others curved round the sun's limb, and exhibiting 

 the intricate deviations and all the characters ot 

 prominences in the neighborhood of solar spots. 

 The brightness and color of these jets were so vivid 

 as to give them tho appearance of fire-works. 



The spaces between some of these jets were per- 

 fectly dark, so that the red zone of the corona ap- 

 peared to be entirely wanting there. Perhaps, how- 

 ever, this was only an effect of contrast due to the 

 extraordinary brightness of the neighboring Jets. I 

 have thought it right to refer to this peculiarity, be- 

 cause the appearance of interstices, or dark spaces, 

 between prominences of considerable brightness, is 

 often observed by means of the spectroscope, inde- 

 pendently of total eclipses. 



the western as at the eastern limb, while the blue re- 

 mained faint and ill defined. Soon after the appear- 

 ance of the chromosphere at the western edge, there 

 was suddenly projected on the spectrum of the sun's 

 limb, which then appeared beyond that of the moon, 

 a stratum of bright lines, separated by dark spaces ; 

 but I could not determine whether they were due to 

 a general or partial reversal of the spectral solar 

 lines, or to a simple discontinuity in the spectrum, 

 since they were too soon immersed in a flood of 

 light, which put an end to the totality of the eclipse. 



Prof. Eespighi's observations are interpreted 

 as confirming the discovery by the American 

 observer, Prof. 0. A. Young, that a region 

 somewhat more extensive than the ring-formed 

 corona shines with a light forming the green 

 line, and that this extended region is a true at- 

 mospheric envelope of the sun. The great 

 facts thought now to be demonstrated (as a 

 writer in the Athenceum says) are these : that 

 surrounding the sun to a depth of nearly 200,- 

 000 miles reaching, therefore, above the sum- 

 mits of the loftiest prominences there is an 



