ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
OBSERVATION IN AFRICA
(Received October 3, 10.20 a.m.)
CAPE TOWN, October 2,
Thousands of people, including many scientists stationed at various points of a barren plateau, gathered in the totality belt in the Calvinia district for an eclipse of the sun. Conditions, were perfect for observations of the totality. This lasted four minutes, in which the light of the sun was equivalent to that of a full moon.
The observation of the eclipse will probably prove to be one of the most successful known to have been made. No cloud marred the view of the great phenomenon.
Scientists stated that they hoped great discoveries would result from the observation, but it will be many months before their calculations are worked out. The corona shone out in vivid relief for nearly four minutes.
Although they had been warned, the natives -were most perturbed as the eclipse blacked out the daylight, sudden darkness descended, the stars appeared, and an unearthly silence enshrouded the eclipse belt, which was one of the loneliest of South Africa's semi-desert areas.
The work was carried out without a hitch at the astronomers1 camp. One spectrograph which was used to record the spectrum at the moment of total eclipse was placed in a 10-foot pit, to protect the apparatus from vary ing temperatures.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume c, Issue 82, 3 October 1940, Page 10
Word Count
219ECLIPSE OF THE SUN Evening Post, Volume c, Issue 82, 3 October 1940, Page 10
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