THE APPROACHING ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XVII, Issue 844, 16 June 1885, Page 3

THE APPROACHING ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

Ur Hector contributes an interesting article on the total eclipse of the sun in September to the " Science Gossip " column of the Evening Press, Wellington. After giving full particulars of the scientific features of the phenomenon, together with ail the most recently determined facts as to observations, Dr Hector says :—" To the observer in Wellington the moon will commence to cover the sun's disc, from W. to E., at 0.50 a.m., and at 7.35 the total eclipse will begin. If the morning is fine and clear, the scene will bo impressive'beyond description. The landscape will darken, with a tint quite unlike that of the dusk of evening, and produce a feeling of intense sadness. The familiar natural features will disappear as they become stripped of their shadows ; so that the sense of distance will be lost. Colors will become distorted, and the faces of men will assume a livid hue ; fowls will roost, flowers close, and most animals will give vent to agonising cries, aud a perception of horror and helplessness will prevail among all living beings. At the time mentioned for the commencement of totality, the gloomy darkness will reach a climax, and suddenly round the black spot in the sky that marks the conjoined bodies of the sun and moon there will spring into view a grand halo of soft silvery light, extending perhaps to twice the width of; the moon in all directions—a woven interlacing of filaments of silvery light that, from previous accounts, seem never to retain the same form for long, or even to present the same appearance to different observers at the same time." The article concludes as follows :—'' A most unusual and remarkable feature in this eclipse will be the presence of the planet Jupiter and its satelites in close apparent proximity to the sun—within three-quarters of a degree, in fact. This will afford a known standard for judgment of the relative brightness of the different emanations from the sun, and it will thus be of great assistance in photographing the corona. The last total eclipse visible in New Zealand was at 5 p.m. on April sth, 1856, and another will not occur till 2 p.m. on December 12th, 1890."