ECLIPSE ACTIVITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 292, 9 December 1936, Page 3

ECLIPSE ACTIVITY.

MONDAY'S EVENT. APPARATUS AT PUKEKOHE. OBSERVATIONS IN CITY. Arrangements are well in hand for the observation by various parties of the annular eclipse which will occur on Monday morning. The principal party, which is under the leadership of Mr. C. B. Miehie, is installing its instruments near the top of Rooseville Park hill, Pukekohe, and two members of the party are living under canvas by the site.

The party, which is under the auspices of the New Zealand Astronomical Society, is equipped with modern apparatus lent by the Greenwich Observatory, England. These instruments were used for recording an eclipse in Japan last year, and next June will be used at the Phoenix Islands, which is the only land within the zone of the total eclipse occurring in that month.

The eoelostat, the mirror in which is for the purpose of reflecting the sun into the lens of asj 19ft coronagraph camera, is already mounted oil a concrete base, and the woodwork for supporting the coronagraph, which is made of thin sheet iron, is in position. A smaller coronagraph has been designed by Mr. Michie. The party hopes to have all the instruments set up very shortly and to carry out observation tests. The observation work on Monday is principally intended as a preliminary rehearsal for the, total eclipse at the Phoenix Islands next year, but a full programme of photography and timing of various contacts will be undertaken. The party includes Mr. I. L. Thomsen, of the Dominion Observatory, Wellington. As announced previously in the "Star," there will be, in all, four parties visiting the central portion of the track of Monday's eclipse. Observations will also be carried out, in Auckland, by two parties from the observing section of the Auckland Astronomical Society. The director of the section, Mr. R. A. Mcintosh, will have a party of four observers at his private observatory in Epsom, and the second party, under Mr. A. C. Hanlon, will be stationed on the roof of a building in the city. Mr. Mcintosh's equipment will comprise a 14in reflector and also smaller ones for visual observation, and the progress of the eclipse will be photographed with a special telescopic camera. Mr. Hanlon lias made his own equipment, which will include a Gin solar camera and telescope. Accurate timing of the first and last contacts will be undertaken by both parties. A party of nine, under the direction of Mr. A. Bryce, president of the Hamilton Astronomical Society, is preparing to observe the eclipse in Hamilton.