Abstract
THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1918 JUNE 8.— Vol, lviii., No. 4, of the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society is entirely taken up with a discussion of the observations made during this eclipse. The photographs taken by the Lowell Observatory Expedition at Syracuse, Kansas, bring out very clearly the connection between the prominences and the coronal arches. It is pointed out that this connection is much easier to trace at sun-spot maximum than at minimum. Dr. Slipher's photographs of the coronal spectrum indicate that coronium is much more abundant in the equatorial than in the polar regions. Messrs. Jakob Kunz and Joel Stebhjns were stationed at Rock Springs, Wyoming, and measured the total light of the corona by photo-electric cells. Comparison was made with the full moon through the intermediary of standard candles. Allowing for absorption by the atmosphere, the total light of the corona was 1.07 candle-metres, just half the value found for the full moon. Comparison of the corona with the sky near the sun before and during the eclipse showed that the corona gave 1/10th of the sky light (same area) in full sunshine, and six hundred times the sky light during totality. It is obvious that most of the illumination of the landscape during totality comes, not from the corona, but from the distant regions of the terrestrial atmosphere, which are outside the shadow. Endeavours are being made by Prof. Hale at Mount Wilson to detect the corona in daylight by the use of photo-electric cells.
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Our Astronomical Column. Nature 105, 117 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105117a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105117a0