60 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Makch 1, 1901. 



each case calculated as many points as seemed necessary 

 from the Tables in Oppolzer's Canon, and then drawn 

 the track throus;h them by hand, except for the eclipses 

 of 1914, 1927, 1999, for which I have made nse of the 

 elements givsn by Dr. Hind in " Nature," Vols. XII., 

 XIII., XXXI., and that of 1905, for which I have made 

 US3 of a map published by the Madrid Observatory. 



Two European countries seem especially favoured at 

 present, viz.. Spain and Norway. Spain has had total 

 eclipses in 1842, 1860. 1870: "it had one in the past 

 year, and others in 1905. 1912. Xorwav has had them 

 in 1816. 1851, 1896, and has others in 1914, 1927, 1945, 

 1954. 



I commence with the eclipse of August 30th, 1905, 

 which is a very favoiu-able one, ths track being 2 J times 

 as broad and the duration 2i times as long as that of 

 the past yeai'. 



track but annular at the beginning and end. The track 

 enters Portugal near Aveiro and runs north-east, leaving 

 Spain some 12 miles east of Gijon. It then traverses 

 France, passing very near Paris, and across Belgium, 

 Germany and Russia. In Portugal there will be about 

 7 seconds of totality, in the west of France a second 

 or two, and further east the eclipse will be only annular. 



Short as the totality is m Portugal it should be pos- 

 sible to obtain photograpiis of the inner corona, and the 

 flash spectrum may be photographed round the whole 

 limb of the sun, which should yield results of great 

 interest and value. 



The eclipse of 1914 ciosses Norway, Sweden and 

 Russia. The central line enters Norway at Alstahoug 

 in latitude 66°, the duration of totality being two 

 miuutts. It runs south-east, intersects the railway running 

 cast fi-om Trondhjem, leaves Sweden near Bramon I., 



Diagi-am showing the Tracts of all Total Solar Eclipses that cross Europe dui'ing the Twentieth Century. 



The central line run.'-, from Viavclez in Oviedo to 

 Torreblanca, passing close to Burgos, which will be a 

 very convenient and accessible station to view it from, 

 the dui'ation of totality there being 3m. 47s., a very 

 unusual amount for a European eclijase. The width of 

 the track is about 120 miles; the southern limit runs 

 approximately from Corunna to Valencia, the northern 

 one from a little west of Santander to somewhat south 

 of Tarragona. This eclipse may also be observed in 

 Labrador, the Balearic Isles and Tunis. 



Passing over the eclipse of 1907, which is total soon 

 after sunrise on the shores of e Caspian, wc come to 

 that of 1912. This belongs to that rather rare class of 

 eclipses which are total neai' the middle of the shadow 



intersects several islands in the Baltic, and then takes 

 a course across Russia from Riga to the Crimea. Those 

 who journey by sea have ttus the choice of four distinct 

 coasts, in addition to the islands. 



The eclipse of 1916 ends near the south coast of Ire- 

 land. The track of totality passes very near to, and 

 may actually intersect, the island of Corvo in the 

 Azores, so that this may be available as an obsei-ving 

 station. If not, it will be necessary to go to Guadaloupe 

 or Venezuela. 



The eclipse of 1921 is inserted in the map, though 

 only an annular one, since it is the next central eclipse 

 in the British Isles. The last total eclipse in the British 

 Isles was in 1724, but there were annular eclipses in 



