SOLAR ECLIPSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22596, 8 December 1936, Page 11

SOLAR ECLIPSE

OBSERVATION PLANS AUCKLAND AND HAMILTON PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE TAKEN Although four parties will visit the central portion of the track of next Monday's eclipse, it is anticipated that equally good views will he obtained in towns within the zone where the annular eclipse will he seen. In Auckland, for instance, the duration of the annular phase of the eclipse will he only ;tt) seconds less than on the central line of eclipse, the most favoured situation, while Hamilton will have an annular eclipse four seconds longer than in Auckland.

In Auckland there will be two parties comprising members of the observing section of the Auckland Astronomical Society. At his private observatory in Epsom, the director of the section, Mr, R. A. Mcintosh, will have a party of four observers. The equipment will consist of a 14in. reflector and two smaller ones for visual observation, while the progress of the eclipse will be photographed with a special telescopic camera. Accurate timing of first and last contacts also will be undertaken.

Mr. A. C. Hanlon will be in charge of the second party of the observing section in Auckland. His equipment, including a Gin. solar camera and telescope, will lie stationed on the roof of a building in the city. All his equipment has been made by Mr. Hanlon and, although his programme will be similar to that conducted at Epsom, his photographs will be taken in infrared light, and therefore will prove of greater value if the sky is misty at the time of the eclipse. In Hamilton a party of nine observers, under the direction of Mr. A. Bryce, president of the Hamilton Astronomical Society, is preparing to observe the eclipse with widely varied equipment, mostly made by the observers.

An interesting research, quite apart from the visual and photographic observations l iv the astronomers, will he carried out during the eclipse by Dr. I). Brown, physics lecturer at Auckland University College. For some years Dr. Brown has been conducting special measures ot the amount of utilisation present in the atmosphere over Auckland, and lie proposes on Mondaj' morning to make an examination of the behaviour of the E2 layer in the ionosphere. Dr. Brown expects to bo able to tell from the time of the eclipse in the ionosphere tho nature of the solar energy which causes the ionisation observed, whether consisting of ultraviolet light rays or corpuscular emission.