ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3581, 30 December 1926, Page 2

ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

VISIBLE IN NEW ZEALAND

A NEW YEAR. EVENT. At the beginning of the coming year the hundreds of tourists and visitors to New Zealand will be offered an added attraction in the shape of an eclipse of the sun. Those engaged in deep sea fishing and holiday making in the vicinit y df Russell will be able, if the weather is suitable, to observe the phenomenon as a complete annular eclipse. Elsewhere in New Zealand it will be a partial eclipse. The eclipse takes place on Tuesday, January 4, and to see it will necessitate -early rising. In, Wei lington the time of commencement will be 5.34 a.m., the greatest phase being reached at 0.34 a.m., and the end at 7.39 a.m. At the moment of the greatest phase .88 of the sun’s disc, will he obscured at Russell where' the eclipse will be seen as an annular one. This annular phase will last only 30 seconds. The width of the annulus, or unobscured ring, will be only Iff seconds of the arc, whereas in last annular eclipse visible in New Zealand it was 03 seconds of the arc. The annulus therefore, on this occasion will lie about a quarter of the width it was* during the eclipse of July, 1925. 'file eclipse will be visible over the whole of New Zealand, but the further south the observer is from Russell the less of the sun will he see obscured. The southern limit of the annulus phase traces a curved line embracing Russell and the extreme point-of the East Cape. The only other bit of land from which tlie annular phase will be visible will be a strip across the extreme south of the South American continent.