Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Echinoderma" to "Edward, prince of Wales": Volume 8, Slice 10Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Echinoderma" to "Edward, prince of Wales": Volume 8, Slice 10
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
The eclipse of January 1, 1889, was observed in California and Nevada by
many American astronomers. The photographs of the corona, especially
those by Charoppin and E.E. Barnard, show a wealth of detail. Those of
Barnard, of the Lick Observatory party, were studied by Holden, and
exhibited the fact that rays, like the "polar-rays," extended all round
the sun, instead of being confined to the polar regions only. The outer
corona was registered out to 100' from the moon's limb on Charoppin's
negatives, to 130' on those of Lowden and Ireland. On other plates the
outline of the moon is visible projected on the corona before totality
began. The spectrum of the corona showed few bright lines besides those
of coronium and hydrogen.
The eclipse of December 22, 1889, was observed in Cayenne, S. America,
by a party from the Lick Observatory under rather unfavourable
conditions. Expeditions sent to Africa were baffled by cloudy weather.
Father Stephen Joseph Perry observed at Salute Islands, French Guiana,
and obtained some photographs of value. The effort cost him his life,
for he died of malarial fever five days after the eclipse.
The eclipse of April 16, 1893, was observed by British and French
parties in Africa and Brazil, and by Professor J.M. Schaeberle of the
Lick Observatory in Chile. The Chile photographs of the corona were
taken with a lens of 40 ft. focus, and are extremely fine. They show a
faint comet near the sun. No great extensions to the corona were shown
on any of the negatives, or seen visually, though they were specially
looked for by British parties. The neighbourhood of the sun was
carefully examined by G. Bigourdan without finding any planet. The
spectrum of the corona was the usual one. The following lines were
photographed in slitless spectroscopes, and undoubtedly belong to the
corona: W. L. 3987; 4086; 4217; 4231; 4240; 4280; 4486; 5303 (the last
number is the wave-length of the green coronium line). All of these have
been seen in slit spectroscopes also. It is possible that two lines
observed by Young in 1869, namely, W. L. (Ångstrom) 5450 and 5570,
should be added to the list of undoubted coronal lines. It is not likely
that helium or hydrogen or calcium vapour forms part of the corona. The
wave-lengths of some 700 lines belonging to the chromosphere and
prominences were determined by the British parties.
The eclipse of August 9, 1896, was total in Norway, Novaya Zemlya and
Japan. The day was very unfavourable as to weather, but good photographs
of the corona were obtained by Russian parties in Siberia and Lapland.
Shackelton, in Novaya Zemlya, with a prismatic camera obtained a
photograph of the reversing-layer at the beginning of totality. This
photograph completely confirms Young's discovery, and shows the
prominent Fraunhofer lines bright, the bright lines of the chromosphere
spectrum being especially conspicuous.
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