8 Mr. W. H. M. Christie. 



in front of the object-glass by my son Harold, and the times, reckoned 

 from the commencement of totality (2nd contact), being recorded 

 by Mr. McA_'Fee, of the Indian Survey Department. 



It had been intended to use Hill-Norris dry collodion " Gazelle " 

 plates for three of the slides (the fineness of grain as compared with 

 gelatine plates giving them a marked advantage), but from trials 

 made before the eclipse it was found that these plates were for some 

 reason untrustworthy. I, however, thought it well to expose one of 

 these plates, but the result is not satisfactory. 



The sky was cloudless during the eclipse, and the programme was 

 carried out without a hitch, with the aid of two native assistants of 

 the Survey Department (Mr. V. B. Garnd and Mr. V. Narayen), who 

 respectively handed me the slides and received them from me, and 

 there was fifteen seconds to spare before the end of totality, the 

 duration at Sahdol being 1 min. 45J sees, as observed. 



For the partial phase, nine photographs were taken between first 

 and second contacts, and eight between third and fourth contacts, as 

 well as a photograph for orientation (with double exposure) 

 immediately before and after the eclipse. The aperture of the object- 

 glass was reduced to 3 inches for these photographs, as it was 

 found by trials before the eclipse that with the aperture thus reduced 

 the exposure given by the Thorn ton-Pickard shutter set to its highest 

 speed was satisfactory for the slow plates used (Thomas's lantern 

 plates). The times of exposure were recorded on a chronograph, a 

 key being pressed by me in the left hand at the same instant as the 

 exposure was given by pressing a pneumatic ball in the right hand. 

 The times of the fall of the shutter were also independently recorded 

 by Mr. Me A' Fee with a chronometer carefully compared with the 

 transit-clock. All the arrangements for accurate local time, which 

 was of vital importance for this part of the programme, and for 

 determination of the longitude of the station by connection with the 

 principal triangulation of the Survey of India, were most ably carried 

 out by Major Burrard, E/.E., and Lieut. Crosthwait, R.E. The 

 position of my instrument, as found by them after the eclipse, was 

 Long. 81 21' 33"= 5 h 25 m 26 8 '2 E., Lat. 23 16' 45'3" K Altitude 

 above sea-level 1502'4 feet. 



The coronagraph was carefully focussed before the eclipse by use 

 of the method described in the Report of the Eclipse Expedition to 

 Japan, 1896,* the image of an object (gauze net in the plane of the 

 plate), being photographed by reflection normally from, the plane 

 mirror of the ccelostat. A special spare back for the plateholder was 

 prepared with a hole covered with gauze net just above the centre, 

 and one of the 12x10 in. plates being cut in two, one half was placed 

 in the lower half of the plateholder and' the reflected image photo- 

 * 'Monthly Notices,' E.A.S., vol. 57, p. 105. 



