Show ECLIPSE OF SUN HOLDS INTEREST OF SCIENCE many Nati nations onsWill will send observers to aner america ica new york A new record tor for the number of astronomical parties observing a total eclipse of the sun will be set on august 31 of this year when the moons shadow passes across eastern canada and new england word has already been received of 10 institutions whose representatives will be in the path of tb hie e shadow and probably a number of others will also send astronomers to make observations only possible when the moon hides bides the sun eight of the scientific parties now planned are from american institutions eions s two from canada four from england and abne one each from russia and japan the path along which they fiill ill be located Is about miles wide and passes south of hudson bay across quebec over the st lawrence ra river V ir from a point about eight miles west of montreal to one about twenty tw enty five miles cast of three Tl rivers ivers nath of these cities are therefore well within the band of totality entering the united states the path is across northeastern vermont all of new hampshire except the southwestern corner southwestern maine the northeastern corner il r of massachusetts and cape cod the shadow nill ill cover comer all of the atlantic coast between tle tween salem mass and boothbay maine the most northerly accessible point from which to observe the total eclipse Is parent quebec on the canadian national railway about abou t miles northwest of montreal two expeditions those of the dominion observatory at ottawa and the royal observatory at greenwich england are expected to make this town their helid headquarters quarters at sorel quebec on the st lawrence ri river ver close to the center of the path the expedition from the mccormick mccormack lck observatory of the university of virginia will be located astronomers of mcgill university at Monti montreal eal will make observations from their own cl city ty where they will be joined b by a groop grou p from the university of london astronomers from cambridge university will go to magog quebec most of the patties parties located in the united states have chosen the vicinity cli lity of conway N U EL including north and center conway and frieburg fryeburg Fry rry ebur eburg maine blaine as observation points groups from the lick observatory atory of the university of california and the sproul observatory of swarthmore college will go to fryeburg frieburg Fry eburg near center conway will be a party from the van observatory of wesleyan university representatives from the franklin institute philadelphia will go a little further west to conway according to tentative plans the group from the perkins Pe riling observatory of ohio wesleyan university will locate at douglass nill hill near sebago maine at this same location will be a party from the royal astronomical society london other expeditions from the mount wilson observatory tile the university of andla indiana na the iwasan observatory of the kyoto imperial university japan and the central astronomical observatory at hulkova Pul kova russia are expected most of tile the observations to be made by these astronomers it if cloudy weather does not make the elaborate preparations in vain will be photographs of the solar corona the corona is the outermost part of the sun so faint that it is generally invisible because of the great glare from the light of tile the inner part when the solar disk Is covered by the moon at tile the time of a total eclipse the corona becomes visible in addition to direct photographs in black and white natural color and motion made through cameras ranging from small to huge astronomical instruments as much as 85 feet long spectroscopic photographs to will be made of the corona to determine its composition and motion other spectroscopic observations will be of the lash flash spectrum seen when the last silver of sun Is visible just before the moon completely covers it or when the first bit reappears just after the total phase is over such observations give valuable information about the suns atmosphere still other observations to be attempted will be photographs of the shadow bands which appear on 0 a the ground before find and after the total eclipse and of the shadow of the moon as it sweeps over the earth one observation that has engaged the attention of astronomers at recent eclipses will be lacking however this is the photography of stars close to the sun to determine whether their light Is deflected by the solar gravitation as predicted by einstein there will be no stars sufficiently bright iii in the suns neighborhood at the time of the august eclipse |