Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1869 — The Great Eclipse of the Sun of 1869. [ARTICLE]

The Great Eclipse of the Sun of 1869.

The United States is highly fa-, tiered in 1S151) by a visitation ftf n total eclipse of the Bun, wUosyoiine of totajity passes completely across the country from the territory of Montana to the shores of North Carolina. The path -of the total phase is thus very accessible, as it .traverses a part of our country furnished with the greatest facilities for travel. Resides, it- will furnish to the inhabitants of » long belt across,the continent, the oportiuiity of observing this most \inpvessive phcbomeiipii of nature, at their places of abode. Tliose districts of the country .not in the path of total eclipse are favored with a partial eclipse of greater or less magnitude, according as they :ne near or'distant# front the central line. However muchscience may have abated from,tiro superstitious dread attending tiro phenomena of a total ufiUpse of the SUij, still it cannot but deeply impress one and phbducc a subdued- feelHlg. of itorrov. For ii gloom to conie gradually over the sky, deepening apparently into a midnight of darkness, surely must bo Startling, find we ean little woyder at*its ('fleet hpon tliose wko lived l>ofore the times at al.inariaes and astronomers. TheteslUupny of ho 1 inv e w-it«esaod thyse pheuoiqeHa is. iutt-resting.— As tiro jdaeeol observation passes within the limits vU the partial, shadow, the Moon begins to encroach on the Stm, and tb gradually out off his light. Mbanwhile, as the light lessenlnjl, a sibkly hue Creeps over the face of nature, a gloom overspreads the landHoaiwb a, 'tl finally Uro sky ifi -shrouded in darkness. The mumt’urul gloom. . k w.hich pe-rv ados the darkness has little lobemblanco to Jlbat-of uiglit T beiug. .tinged withgreen, sometimes red, , and sometimes a yellowish crimson. Tiro eolotvof the sky is changed froinjts usual ariiro,blue to a_Jfvul jjprjdo or violet tint. Tiro color of gurroumling objx'ct* begonies yejlbw,. i-.li, or ol a light olive or greejijsfi tinge, and,the figure|C|i£. tK>r«MiS; asstuub sn greoniah q\ eadaverous 'aspect. Tlie darkness is' a little less than that which prevails at night in the presence of full'itioonp but is sufficient to bring to view the planets and the brighter fixed stars.—Pruirie farmer Annual. [This eclipse of tiro Sun occurs on the Tth of next bul,,;w* only partial n ith ys. Its is 0.051 at Chicago ainl as wc aro ‘a'ftfitc VoiUh-bf that point 4 it will be a little greater biarc, mu appvd.xiinMiijßjjtp Lwcwiy-ilVntr twgn-, ty fijHw- Hi,coit¥»«ntM»!» »t abouAc lyn minutes aftar tpmni’dlock hi eh* after-boon and continfiei With hi A fe\V minutes of two hOiifs. -TO eclipse attains its gpcatesk^iMiUlfa