The Catholic World, Vol. 10, October, 1869 to March, 1870Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 10, October, 1869 to March, 1870
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
The separation of the discs of the sun and moon during the following
hour was probably carefully observed by few except the astronomers
and photographers; the moment of interest had passed, and few cared
to do more than exchange congratulations on the success of the
display. I forgot to notice whether the corona and prominences were
visible after the totality; the latter were still seen, according
to accounts received from elsewhere, and I met with one gentleman
some days afterward who had seen the great protuberance on the lower
edge of the sun at Shelbyville, Indiana, a point some fifteen miles
from the outside line of totality; he had, of course, no previous
suspicion of its existence.
The eclipse was naturally the principal topic of conversation during
the evening, and every one was anxious to report his own observations
and learn those of others. I found that eleven spectral lines had
been seen by Professor Winlock in the great prominence, some of them
characteristic of the metal magnesium. He saw only three before and
after totality; thus confirming the idea previously entertained,
that solar eclipses, though not the only occasions on which these
interesting objects may be seen, are, with our present apparatus, far
the best. The photographers had taken some eighty pictures, several
during the totality, and the times of beginning and ending had been
accurately observed both at Shelbyville and, as we afterward learned,
also at the stations on the border line, Falmouth and Oakland; which
border observations give the position and breadth of the path of the
shadow within some eight or ten rods; the southern edge can even be
determined with much greater accuracy, owing to a fortunate selection
of the station, which proved to be extremely near it. The precise
amounts by which these results differ from the previous computations
have yet to be determined; but it is probable that the corrections
to the tables now used will be very small.
An ingenious method of observing the time of the external contacts,
or beginning and end of the whole eclipse, was, as I heard, devised
by a gentleman at another station. These phenomena, especially
the first, are very difficult to observe accurately, owing to the
invisibility of the moon when off of the sun's disc, and the waviness
of the sun's limb, making it doubtful that an indentation has been
made in it till it has become quite deep, which is, of course, some
time after the actual meeting of the two bodies. He observed it with
the spectroscope by noting the time of disappearance of one of the
lines only visible on the extreme edge of the sun's disc.
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