TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19786, 9 March 1927, Page 11

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND SPECTACLE FOR FEW SECONDS ONLY. Great preparations are being made in England for the observations on June 29 of the first total eclipse of th c sun to occur in that country since 1724. Thc belt of the country in which the eclipse will be total is 30 miles wide. It crosses the north of Wales and runs from Southport in the west to Hartlepool in the east. Other towns in the belt are Preston, Stockton, Darlington, Crieeieth, Richmond (Yorkshire). The eclipse will last only 24 seconds and will take place at 6.25 a.m. summer time. A special excursion to Southport is >to be run from Euston Station, and for ■this purpose a considerable amount of accommodation in Southport hotels has already been booked. Special excursions Vrc also being arranged by other travel organisations to the chief points 'of vantage in the belt. One prominent astronomer said: “Arrangements similar to those for conveying large parties of children to Wembley should be made. It is a sight which nobody who can be there should miss.”

Three Greenwich astronomers, Dr Jackson, Mr Davidson, and Mr Melotte, will take two telescopes and two spectroscopes to a station in Yorkshire. The party will take up its position at least a fornight before the date of thc bclipsc. Sir Frank Dyson, the Astrono-mer-Royal, will accompany the party. Other parties will go to Southport and Hartlepool. Some of the astronomers, including Professor Fowler (South Kensington Observatory) and Professor Sampson (Edinburgh), arc staying at home, where they will have thc advantage of a fixed observatory. A/ party of amateur astronomers from the British Astronomical Association is probably going to a station in Yorkshire. Another party will go to Norway, where the opportunity for observation will be even more favourable than in England.