ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 283, 22 April 1911, Page 3

ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

SOME PARTICULARS. The total eclipse of the sun, on the morning of April 29, begins at 7h. 27min. 30see. a.m. X.Z.M.T., and attains its greatest at Bh. 25min. 24sec. It ends at Bh. 27min. 54sec. It will mean that three-quarters of the sun wall be darkened here; .011 at Wellington, .947 at Sydney. At Melbourne the total eclipse ends at 7.44 standard time; Adelaide .890. The best point to see it would be at the equator, in longitude 155deg. It begins at sunset on the west coast of North America, about Panama, and ends at Melbourne, It will be followed by the usual lunar eclipse of the moon on May 13, beginning at 3.15 and ending at 7.37. The moon rises at New Plymouth at 4.4!) eclipsed, but it is only a very small eclipse at best. Lunar eclipses are equal wherever the moon is visible, but it is quite different with solar eclipses; 30deg. suffice to make the moon clear the sun entirely. We had a big total eclipse of the sun last year, on May 9, just as Halley's comet was beside it. It began in lat. 70 deg. south, 110 (leg. long. E., and ended at Hobart. The lunar eclipse was on May 24 and was total. Eclipses were discovered and recorded by the Chaldeans. They found after periods of IS years and ten days all eclipses repeat on the same days of months. These periods they named "Saros." The greatest possible time the eclipse can last is 7min sSsec, and that is on the equator. The same spot does not see two total solar eclipses. From March 20, 114t), to 1750 no total eclipse was seen in London. At Mont Pellier total eclipses were seen on January 1, 1388. June 7, 1415, May 12, 1706, and July 8, 1542. At Paris' the only total eclipse in the eighteenth century was 1724 (July 8). The most ancient total solar eclipse recorded is September 30, 010 B.C. In Aristotle's work, "De Colo," mention is made of the moon eclipsing Mars, calculated to have occurred on April 4,357, B.C. Total eclipses of the sun recorded:—A.D. 59. 9S. 237, 300, 454, 787, 840, S7B, 957, 1133, 11S7, 1191, 12-11. 1356, 1415, 1455, 1544, 1500, 1507, 1598, 1005, 1700, 1715, 1724, 1778, ISOO, 1842, ISSO, 1851, 1856, 1800, 1801. IS7O, ISB7, 1896, 1900.