ON THE TOTAL gOLAR ECLIPSE OF AUGUST 29, 1886. 
Pj()5 
eclipses which have taken place early in April the eastern half of the corona is the 
one which is broadest, while in the eclipses observed in July and August the opposite 
held good and the westei'n half was the broader. The eclipses of December and May 
have hitherto shown no difiPerence between the two halves. It will no doubt be con¬ 
sidered that the number of well ascertained coincidences is too slight to prove 
anything, and with this opinion I cjuite agree, especially as the changes in the corona 
which seem to depend on the Sun-spot cycle have to be taken into account. Never¬ 
theless, it seems worth while to give the evidence here. 
Fig. 1. 
To begin with the eclipses of which we possess photographs, the only ones, perhaps, 
we can safely take into account, the following Table will illustrate my meaning :— 
Date. 
Year. 
Corona. 
Sun-spot numbers. 
April 6 . . . 
. 1875 
Eastern lialf broader. 
20-5 
May 17 . 
1882 
Absence of symmetry. 
60-U 
May 6. 
1883 
99 99 . 
63-7 
July 29. 
1878 
Western half broader. 
3 3 
August 29 .... 
1886 
99 99 . 
25-7 
December 22 . . . 
1870 
No symmetry. 
135-4 
December 11 ... 
1871 
Symmetry, but both sides equally wide 
98 0 
The Sun-spot numbers represent frequency of spots as determined by Mr. R. Wolf. 
As far as 1878 these numbers are given in Mr. E,anyard’s Eclipse volume (‘Roy. 
Astron. Soc. Memoirs,’ vol. 41) for the actual date of the eclipse. After that date 
the numbers are those given from time to time for the average of the whole year oy 
Mr. R. Wolf in the ‘Comptes Rendus.’ 
2 R 
MDCCCLXXXIX.-A, 
