ECLIPSES IN 1935

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 5

ECLIPSES IN 1935

SEVEN ALL TOLD IN YEAR. WHAT NEW ZEALAND MAY SEE. The present year, 1935, is a year of the maximum number of eclipses. There will be seven all told, five of the sun and two of the moon. In no year can there possibly be more than seven eclipses, or less than two. The seven occurring this year should furnish astrological prognosticators with plentiful opportunity for direful predictions, but there have been seven eclipses in previous years and the world still survives. New Zealand is not destined to be a witness during the year of very much in the eclipse line, with reasonable luck in the weather seeing bits of three of them only. The ball is set rolling to-day by a partial eclipse of the sun, which will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere only and not here. On January 19 there will be a total eclipse of the moon which will be visible in New Zealand. On February 3 the sun will again be partially eclipsed, but New Zealanders, unless they happen to be travelling in North America, will not see anything of it. June 30 produces another partial eclipse of the sun, but this is more remote still from New Zealand, being visible chiefly around the North Pole. A total eclipse of the moon on July 16 may perhaps be seen to a slight degree in New Zealand, but the partial eclipse of the sun following on July 30 will not be seen at all in these latitudes. Towards the end of the year, however, on December 26 next (Boxing Day), early risers will be able to watch a partial phase of an annular eclipse of the sun. When the sun rises that morning about half its surface will be obscured by. the moon, but to see the eclipse as a full annular eclipse it will be necessary to take a trip to the vicinity of the South Pole. People in New Zealand will have to console themselves with a partial eclipse only, and that very early in the morning. Therefore, of the year’s four partial eclipses of the sun New Zealand will see none; the one annular eclipse of the sun will be visible as a partial eclipse only; and of the two total eclipses of the moon one will be visible fully and the other very slightly.