CHAPTEE VII. 



PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CORONA. 



THE work which, was most widely taken up by members of 

 * the expeditions was that of photographing the corona. 

 From the very first commencement of the photographic art, 

 it was felt that it possessed some great advantages over eye- 

 drawings, particularly as the photographic plate took in the 

 whole of the phenomenon exposed to it so far as this was bright 

 enough to give an impression ; and it was, of course, entirely 

 free from the effect of any preconceived ideas. To quote 

 Professor Langley, "The camera has no nerves, and what it 

 sets down we may rely on." 



So early as 1851, in the eclipse the track of which passed 

 over Norway and eastern Europe, on July 28th, Dr. Busch 

 took a daguerreotype of the corona at Konigsberg. This 

 photograph shows a number of prominences and the inner 

 corona very fairly well to a height of some 8' or 9' from 

 the moon's limb. Mr. J. A. Whipple, eighteen years later, was 

 equally successful with a collodion negative, obtained at Shelby- 

 ville, Kentucky ; and the following year Mr. A. Brothers, 

 F.R.A.S., and a member of this Association, obtained a photo- 

 graph at Syracuse of the eclipse of 1870, December 22, 

 which shows not only the inner corona, but the outer to a very 

 .great distance from the limb. Indeed, Mr. Brothers' photograph 

 held the record as to coronal extension for an entire eclipse 

 cycle. It was not surpassed in this respect till the well-known 

 eighteen-year period brought a return of the eclipse on 1889, 

 January 1. 



1871, December 12, yielded the beautiful negatives taken 

 at Baikul by Mr. Davis, the photographer of Lord Lindsay's 

 (now Earl of Crawford and Balcarres) expedition. These photo- 

 graphs still remain unsurpassed for the beauty and delicacy of 

 detail which they give in the corona. 



The corona of 1878, July 29, was successfully photographed 

 at several stations, particularly at Creston, Wyoming ; the 

 peculiarity in these photographs being the sharp definition of 

 the edges of the great equatorial wings. These photographs 

 furnish an extreme contrast to those of 1871 in the character 



100 



