OTAGO ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22909, 17 June 1936, Page 10

OTAGO ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

MONTHLY MEETING The monthly meeting of the Otago Astronomical Society was _ held in the Museum last.night, the president (Mr W. I). Anderson') being in the chair. There was a small attendance. Prior to the principal business of the evening, which consisted of addressee by Mr J. C. Begs and Mr W. Gardner, the president said that the society had received the resignation of Mr Begg from the positions of secretary and director of the observatory. This had come as a severe blow to the society, as Mr Hegg bad been associated with it for a considerable time, and for many years had guided its destinies. At a meeting of the committee an expression of appreciation of Mr Begg’s services to the society, and also to astronomy, had been carried, and a suitable minute had been prepared. The society was exceedingly fortunate in securing the services of Mr W. H. B. Hobbs as successor to Mr Begg. Mr Hobbs was a keen astronomer, and had shown marked ability a« a lecturer, and would undoubtedly maintain the high standard set by his predecessor. Mr Gardner’s address was on the subject of solar activity, and after indicating that from the earliest times the sun had played a great part in the activities of mankind, and had, in fact,, determined its very existence, he went on to give figures illustrative of the vast difference in sizes between the earth and sun, ami also the relatively puny dimensions of the sun when compared with the major heavenly bodies. In 1010, he said, Galileo first discovered that the surface ot the sun could be studied by moans of a telescope, and from that time man’s knowledge of solar activity had steadily increased. Ho showed, by means of a graph, that the sun underwent quiescent and active periods extending over cycles of 11 years, and said that from observations ho had made lie bad discovered that during the depressed periods of solar activity no fewer than 12 wars had occurred in as many troughs represented by the graph, and that in the peak periods of activity the major epidemics and earthquakes had been recorded. The lecturer went on to deal with such phenomena as coronas and sun spots, and showed by means of lantern slides that the former were materially affected by the latter. Mr J. C. Begg dealt with the subject of solar eclipses and said that in oldeu times there were many who imagined that the fate of men was foretold by the stars and who feared an eclipse of the sun by reason of the evils it was supposed to portend. The transition period came during the Heuaissauee, when men made a closer study of natural phenomena and many of the older superstitions were done away with. Eclipses of the sun weie divided into three groups, total, partial, and annular, the latter being au eclipse in which the disc of the moon was projected against the sun. leaving a largo circle of light surrounding the moon’s bulk. An annular eclipse, Mr Begg mentioned, would be seen in the North Island in December of this year. Astronomers were able to predict eclipses on account of the regularity of the orbits of the various bodies. There were 18 years 11 1/3 days between two eclipses of the same character, but these would not occur on the same point of the earth, but would have to go through another cycle, which would take them right off the earth’s surface before they returned approximately to their first position. Mr Begg then went on to deal with his observation of a total eclipse in Queensland in 1022. and said that as the eclipse progressed shadows became very distinct, on account of the small area of the sun visible. When the eclipse had reached totality the darkness was not intense, but was more like twilight, except that the quality of the light was different, no doubt as the result of the corona. At the conclusion of flic meeting votes ot thanks were passed to the lecturers.