Our Astronomical Column

Abstract

THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE (April, 1893).—M. N. Coculesco, in the current number of the Comptes Rendus (No. 22) gives a brief account of his observations made during the last total solar eclipse. The station he occupied was at Fundium. The instruments which he took with him consisted of a telescope of O˙16 m. aperture, with a wooden mounting, a fine comet seeker, a mean time chronometer, and a thermometer. An ordinary photographic camera fixed to the telescope was also employed, five fine negatives of the corona being obtained with it. The plates employed were the ordinary dry plates of gelatine-bromide of silver, and the developer that of ferrous-oxlate. The exposures were of 2, 4, 6, 7, and 5 seconds duration, but the second plate seems to have given the most details. The observation of contacts gave the following results:—