THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2055, 5 September 1868, Page 7

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

The solnr eclipse on the 18th is thus de? serr edin The Argus :—«'lnaccordancewitli | the announcement made last week, the sola* eclip-e came off on Tuesday afternoon. Tha [ sky in the west at the time of the commence* l meut of, the eclipse waa partiaUy veiled af 1 times with thin light clouds, which sufficiently*, dimmed the light.of the sun to permit of its being observed with tha naked eye without obscuring it altogether;. The consequence was, that at the time of greatest obscuration, the eclipse could W drstinctly seen with the . unassisted eye as an indentation on the right hand* s<de of the. disc. There wss not sufficient surface covered to make any perceptible difference in the b'ght of the sunj' not so much- as the smallest cloud occasions* Small as was the eclipse, however, it excitedsufficient interest to induce a larj-e numbe* of amateur astronomer's to watch its progress"/ and many of such observers could be seen oa the sunuy side of Collins street, looking at i£ through smoked glasses Of course, the small indentation on the orb was all that was to b©: se«n, the obscuration not being sufficient to' occasion any of the more remarkable phenomena of eclipses, .along the line, oi total eclipse, no doubt, the many talented observers who were sent out by the various Governments of Europe were dUigently ea* gaged in noting the many and interesting phenomena which this remarkable eclipse, must have exhibited, and their reports wiU b® awaited \vith great interest." Mr EUery, of the Melbourne Observatory, supplies tha following notes of the eclipse from a Mel. bourne point, of view:—"The first contact o± the eclipse this afternoon was observed to take place at 3h. 49min. 347 sec, and thelast at sh. Oinin. 22 ssec. Melbourne, mcaa time. The obscuration at the greatest phase ■beingbarely two-tenths of the sun's disc, no sensible diminution of light was experienced* The contacts were observed very, clearlyj although light clouds occasionaUy intervened. The exactness with which the times of actual contacts correspond to those predicted shows to what precision the lunar ephemeiidea have been brought since the adoption of Hansen's tables." ■ *\ • .. y*