Astronomy of To-day: A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical LanguageDolmage, Cecil Goodrich Julius
Science
Astronomy of To-day: A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language
Dolmage, Cecil Goodrich Julius
Astronomy
It is not a far cry from notice of the corona to that of other
accompaniments of a solar eclipse. Thus the eclipse of 1706, the total
phase of which was visible in Switzerland, is of great interest; for it
was on this occasion that the famous red prominences seem first to have
been noted. A certain Captain Stannyan observed this eclipse from Berne
in Switzerland, and described it in a letter to Flamsteed, the then
Astronomer Royal. He says the sun's "getting out of his eclipse was
preceded by a blood-red streak of light from its left limb, which
continued not longer than six or seven seconds of time; then part of the
Sun's disc appeared all of a sudden, as bright as Venus was ever seen in
the night, nay brighter; and in that very instant gave a Light and
Shadow to things as strong as Moonlight uses to do." How little was then
expected of the sun is, however, shown by Flamsteed's words, when
communicating this information to the Royal Society:--
"The Captain is the first man I ever heard of that took notice of a Red
Streak of Light preceding the Emersion of the Sun's body from a total
Eclipse. And I take notice of it to you because it infers that _the Moon
has an atmosphere_; and its short continuance of only six or seven
seconds of time, tells us that _its height is not more than the five or
six hundredth part of her diameter_."
What a change has since come over the ideas of men! The sun has proved a
veritable mine of discovery, while the moon has yielded up nothing new.
The eclipse of 1715, the first total at London since that of 878, was
observed by the famous astronomer, Edmund Halley, from the rooms of the
Royal Society, then in Crane Court, Fleet Street. On this occasion both
the corona and a red projection were noted. Halley further makes
allusion to that curious phenomenon, which later on became celebrated
under the name of "Baily's beads." It was also on the occasion of this
eclipse that the _earliest recorded drawings of the corona_ were made.
Cambridge happened to be within the track of totality; and a certain
Professor Cotes of that University, who is responsible for one of the
drawings in question, forwarded them to Sir Isaac Newton together with a
letter describing his observations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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