Abstract
ECLIPSE METEOROLOGY.—A very extensive series of meteorological observations was made during the total eclipse of the sun on January 1, 1889, at Willows, California. It appears that the temperature fell 6° F. from the commencement of totality to ten minutes after, while the variation of the barometer was so nearly identical with the daily fluctuation that no effect could with certainty be ascribed to the eclipse. The influence on the wind, however, was very marked, its previous velocity of twelve miles per hour being reduced almost to that, of a calm. Observations with the solar radiation thermometer showed that some heat was received throughout totality. An attempt was also made to secure concerted observations of the so-called “shadow bands” —the long dark bands separated by white spaces which are seen in rapid motion on the ground and sides of buildings just before and after totality. The observations collected seem to give decisive evidence against the view that the bands are diffraction fringes in the shadow of the moon, the observed velocities being far less than that of the shadow; the fact that they were prominently seen at some stations, while at others they were hardly visible, indicates a local origin (Ann. Harvard. Coll. Obs. vol. xxix.).
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Our Astronomical Column. Nature 49, 349–350 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049349a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049349a0