Total Solar Eclipse of 1900 (May 28). 369 



28. General Observations. 



The general darkness during totality was about the same as in 

 India. 



The dark moon did not appear so strikingly coal black in Algiers 

 as it did in India. This is curious when considered in connection 

 with the fact that the polarisation of the sky in front of the corona 

 was much stronger in India than in Algiers. 



Round the limb the brightness appeared relatively much greater in 

 Algiers than in India. The breadth of the bright ring was estimated 

 as 2' to 3' ; the decrease in brightness along the radius was very 

 abrupt at this distance from the limb ; at 4' or 5' from the limb a 

 lower level of brightness was reached and thence outwards along the 

 equatorial streamers the decrease in brightness was small up to points 

 about 2 from the centre. 



My impression of the streamers, recalled from a very vivid memory 

 of the picture in my mind, is that the double streamer on the preceding 

 side of the sun certainly extended beyond Mercury, and there was a 

 similar extension on the following side. The latter extended for some 

 distance as a broad streamer with nearly parallel edges. 



I used a telescope of 3 inches aperture and of 29 inches focal 

 length for viewing the corona direct. The instrument was merely 

 clamped to the walls of the hut. I was able to focus the instrument 

 carefully, and devoted some moments to examining the corona imme- 

 diately outside the large prominence in the Sp quadrant. The 

 prominence appeared double, one side having the form of a tapering 

 column projecting radially from the limb, and the other appearing in 

 cloud-like floating forms, both parts being of a wonderful rose colour. 

 In the corona I was disappointed to find no striking signs of arches 

 over the prominence. The only fine structure visible in the corona 

 were a few interlacing wisps crossing one another, presumably in the 

 part where the two streamers on the preceding side of the sun crossed 

 one another in diverging from one another. 



The shout that is stated to have risen from the Arabs in Algiers was 

 heard by me as I exposed the plate for the spectrum of the corona, 

 that is, as Mr. "Wyles called "six." Algiers lies just a little more than 

 a mile in a direct line from the Observatory. It seems probable that 

 the shout was uttered at the same instant as Professor Turner's signal 

 " Start," and announced that the totality had begun at Algiers. 



