Abstract
Two years ago Mr. J. J. Aubertin, having seen a copy of NATURE for October 13, 1892, containing a letter on the then coming solar eclipse, went home and dreamed a dream. In his vision the Sun visited him and ordered him to gird up his loins, and go to the desert of Atacama and watch the eclipse. This brief explanation is necessary in order to account for the rather clumsy title of the book before us. Mr. Aubertin, regardless of the belief that dreams should be reversed, and that he was seventy-five years of age, travelled to Chile, and, meeting Prof. Schaeberle there, became one of the eclipse party. He was, however, more an interested layman than a scientific observer, and therefore his book is of very little value to astronomers. In fact, the book is chiefly taken up with tittle-tattle of interest to very few beyond the parties concerned. A picture of the corona, as seen by the author, is very pretty, and compares favourably with the impressions recorded by observers of the phenomena before photography monopolised the field as a coronal artist. But at the present time, the results of visual observations of the corona are regarded with suspicion, and rightly, for they never afford any very definite information as to the true form and structure of the sun's surroundings. However, Mr. Aubertin faithfully records what he saw, so his observation must be accepted. The book contains Prof. Schaeberle's photograph as a frontispiece.
By Order of the Sun to Chile to see his Total Eclipse, April 16, 1893.
By J. J. Aubertin. Pp. 152. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, and Co., 1894.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 51, 101 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/051101b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051101b0