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IOWA ACADEMY OE SCIENCES. 
Figure 6. Equipment for reviewing the total solar eclipse of May 28, 1900. 
Fortunately for American astronomers the eclipse of 
May 28, 1900, was visible in easily accessible places in our 
southern states, and the meteorological conditions were all 
that could be desired, hence the array of telescopes, cameras 
and other instruments directed upward in an endeavor to 
unravel old Sol’s secrets w r as probably the finest and most 
expensive ever erected along the shadow track of a solar 
eclipse. The total phase of this eclipse began at sunrise in 
the Pacific ocean west of Mexico and extended in a narrow 
track, averaging about fifty miles in width, across portions 
of the southern and southeastern states, leaving our shores 
near Norfolk, Va.,and crossing the Atlantic ocean to Por- 
tugal and Spain and ending in southeast Egypt. The only 
drawback amid all the favoring conditions was the brevity 
of totality, which within the United States did not exceed 
100 seconds, and at Wadesboro was about 90 seconds. 
About a year previously I had fully determined to wit- 
ness this, my first total eclipse, if possible. My original in- 
tention was to occupy a location in the state of Georgia, as 
