Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1869 — The Great Eclipse. [ARTICLE]

The Great Eclipse.

Tlw’ great eclipse of llie sun to occur a week from next .Saturday, is attracting a great deal of interest among scientific men. Its line of totality is nearly 140 miles wide, extending across tlic continent of America and through the United States. The latitude of Vincennes will be Hear the center of the belt. At liens sol Her, although the eclipse will not be quite total, it will he accompanied by the usual phenomena, a description of which we copy from the Riverside for August: “When the sun is more than threefourths hidden by the dark disk of the moon, a perceptible gloom is thrown on all the landscape around. Soon alter the sky -appears to descend; Ute horizon to contract; the temperature <*'the air falls; birds ceafte their singing-, flowers close; an unearthly greenish and reddish light is iin|*aeted to portions of the sky; a Middeji dakiicsß ensues, and everythin" wears a mysterious and gloomy aspect “Immediately before the last trace of the sun’s, dink disappears, the awful shadow of inoon in the air may l»e delected approaching rapidly from the west, like a dark column ■or a sombre cloud. To witness this impressive sight care must be ex?rifcuNM, lt'st in the excitement of the memeittnlie swiftly approaching shadow he unheeded.

“The last thread of light from the sun's disk sometimes appears to separate into little grains or bends, before its total disappearance. This ! phenomenon has received the name ; of “liaily’s Heads,” from the noted j astronomer who first witnessed it. “Instantly on the extinction of the I sun, will be seen the grandest feature of the eclipse, —the Corona, or j crown ol light, issuing on all sides ! apparently from the purple-black disk of the moon, though in reality from the sun. it is the ntiuosjdttil’c of the sun rendered visible by the absence ol the overpowering sunlight. As the light is dazzlingly white, a piece of smoked glass will enable you to survey it without the inconvenience that might otherwise arise. “lii the corona, ami issuing also apparently from the dark moon, there will appear several rose colored flames projecting beyond the gloomy disk, perhaps a tenth the diameter of the moon. They, too, belong to the sun, and arc demonstrated by the spectroscope, to be incandescent hydrogen. With every eclipse they vary in size, number, shape, position, and depth of color. •‘l’lancts ami large stars at c often noted during total eclipses, by those who have previously studied their positions on a celestial map. As the darkness hardly exceeds that of a moonlight night, they are not always readily found in the two or three minutes of gloom that attend the entire obscuration of the sun. “When the sun reappears, .the phenomenon of Baily’s Heads should be again looked for, —this time on the right side of the moon’s disk. The awful shadow will afterwards be seen sailing rapidly away in the air to the eastward. Then follow the changes «f color in the sky and land-’ scape, the rising of the thermometer, and general awakening ol nature, and the wonderful exhibition is over.” The eclipse is caused by the moon coining between the sun and tlio earl)), by which its shadow is cast ou the earth. This will commence at ten minutes ol four o’clock in the afternoon, attaining its greatest magnitude about twelve minutes after five, and then slowly receding until at six o’clock we have passed entirely out of the shadow, and the sun is again wholly visible.