1883.] On the Total Solar Eclipse of May 17, 1882. 153 



A drawing of the corona from the hands of Mr. W. M. Baillie 

 shows a good agreement with the photographs. 



The position of a comet which appeared during totality, can be 

 accurately fixed by means of the photographs. At 18 h. 24 m. 36 s. 

 G.M.T., the comet's place was found to be Dec. 18° 34' 59" N. ; 

 R.A. 3h. 34 m. 43 s. 



An examination of the different photographs shows a slight but 

 progressive change in the comet's position. This is in part accounted 

 for by the moon's motion over the solar disk during the eclipse ; but 

 part of it is very likely due to the proper motion of the comet, which 

 apparently was receding from the sun during the eclipse. 



Some interesting results were obtained by means of the prismatic 

 camera. The strongest impression of the prominences was obtained 

 in the ring corresponding to the calcium lines H and K. The hydro- 

 gen lines H a (C) Hj3 (F) H Y (near G) and Hs all appear in the 

 strongest prominences ; but differences are noticed in the relative 

 intensity of some of these lines. Thus, one prominence is especially 

 rich in violet light, and shows both H / and H a stronger than two 

 adjacent prominences, which in their turn show a greater intensity 

 of H^. This can be explained on the supposition that the first men- 

 tioned prominence was hotter than the others, an explanation which is 

 confirmed by the fact that it shows a great number of lines reaching 

 far into the nltra- violet. The line (X— 5875), which generally goes by 

 the name of D 3 , is also represented in the prominences, and a very 

 weak impression of one prominence, corresponding to a wave-length 

 5315 (K 1474), can be seen. One of the prominences shows two lines 

 in the infra-red; one of them corresponds very likely to \=8240, the 

 other is beyond the limit of the normal spectrum published by one of 

 us. Besides these well-defined prominences the photograph shows two 

 rings, which are evidently due to the lower parts of the corona, and 

 therefore correspond to true coronal light. The wave-length of one 

 of these rings is 5315, the well-known corona line ; the second ring 

 corresponds to D 3 . The yellow ring is much fainter than the green 

 one, but more uniformly distributed round the surface of the sun. 



An instantaneous photograph taken about five seconds after the end 

 of totality shows still the prominences, and also at the cusps short 

 extensions corresponding to the hydrogen lines, and due no doubt to 

 the higher parts of the chromospheric layer. 



The photograph taken with the spectroscopic camera shows close to 

 the sun a strong continuous spectrum, reaching from F to a place 

 beyond \ 3490 in the ultra-violet. At some distance away from the 

 sun there is a sudden falling off in intensity, but traces of the 

 continuous spectrum in the region near G can be seen up to a height 

 of 1*47 solar radii on the southern side of the solar disk, and to a 

 height of '9 of a solar radius on the northern side. 



