Abstract
TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSES.—The eclipse of the sun on July 29, in which the belt of totality traverses the North American continent from Behring's Strait to the Gulf of Mexico, is a return of the eclipse of June 16, 1806, which was observed in the United States by Bow-ditch and the well-known Spanish astronomer, Ferrer; in this year it was central, with the sun on the meridian in 65° 30′ W., and 42° 23′ N., and the duration of total eclipse exceeded five minutes. At its next return on June 27, 1824, it was total at apparent noon in 170° 4′ W., and 44° 42′ N., but the course of the central eclipse was almost entirely an ocean-track. In 1842, on July 8, the total phase passed over the south of Europe, and was observed by a great number of astronomers, amongst them by the Astronomer-Royal at the Superga,near Turin,and by Baily, at Pavia, and Arago, who was stationed at Perpignan, gave a graphic account of the circumstances attending the extinction of sunlight, which has been often quoted. At the ensuing return of the eclipse in 1860, the “Himalaya” expedition was organised, and numerous descriptions of the phenomenon are upon record; one of the best of them is that given before the Royal Society, as the Bakerian Lecture, by Mr. de la Rue. American observers will doubtless render good account of the eclipse in July next. Its last return in the present century will take place on August 9, 1896, when it will be total soon after sunrise in the north of Sweden and Norway, central at apparent noon in 112° 21′ E. and 65° 38′ N. between Nova Zemlia and the mainland of Asia, ending in 179° 3′ W. and 18° 35′ N. in the North Pacific.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 17, 452 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/017452a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017452a0