ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29017, 5 October 1959, Page 13

ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

Observations In America (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) BOSTON (Massachusetts), October 2. A Harvard University professor flew towards the rising sun today and saw the valleys of the moon, probably about two miles deep. The director of the Harvard Observatory (Dr. Donald Menzel) told reporters after the flight he had sighted a spectacular double ring corona during the total eclipse of the sun by the moon. The lunar valleys through which the sun shone for an instant before it was blotted out were probably about two miles deep, he said. Thousands who had turned out before dawn in Massachussetts and New Hampshire were prevented by fog, cloud and drizzle from seeing the eclipse. But over the Atlantic Ocean scientists flew above the clouds today to view the eclipse. The most important study of the phenomenon was believed to have been made from a cameraequipped United States Air Force jet fighter in the vicinity of the Canary Islands, United Press International reported. In Nigeria, headlights were used at noon in many parts of the country during the eclipse. In north-east Nigeria, the eclipse was total. In bush areas chiefs summoned their people by drum to pass on a warning against looking with the naked eye at the eclipse, and also assured them that it was not the result of a French atomic bomb being exploded in the Sahara.