SUN'S TOTAL ECLIPSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22131, 10 June 1935, Page 11

SUN'S TOTAL ECLIPSE

PLANS TWO YEARS AHEAD OBSERVERS FROM DOMINION EXPEDITION TO PACIFIC ISLE [by telegraph OWN correspondent] NEW PLYMOUTH. Sunday Mary Island, in the uninhabited Phoenix Group, will be the scene of observations bv astronomical scientists from New Zealand when the total eclipse of the sun occurs in June, 10:57. The New Zealand group will probably comprise Messrs. F. Gawith, K.R.A.S. (Kltham), C. 13. Michic (Kaitaia), Dr. Burns (Timaru) and two others. The island is a small coral atoll seven miles long and four miles wide. The Phoenix Group is north of Samoa, near the equator, not far from the track of the San Francisco mail steamers. The New Zealand party proposes to obtain a launch, to take it by steamer to the group, and then put off in the launch for Mary Island. The party will be picked up by a steamer about a month later.

The island is practically an elliptical shell of coral, with a safe, navigable channel, giving entrance to a large lagoon. There is no fresh water on the islet, and it will be necessary for the party to take its own supplies. It is understood that a party of American astronomers will make an expedition to, Japan to study the eclipse. Mary Island, however. New Zealanders believe, is the most suitable point from which to observe the phenomenon, since it provides a view of the sun at its highest altitude.

Mr. Gawith, who has explained the plans for the expedition, wag a member of the scientific party which observed the eclipse of the sun from Niuafoou Island, in the Tongan Group, a few years ago.