]
"The moon, so white in the sky, becomes densely black when it is closely
ranging with the sun, and it shows itself as a black notch on the
burning disc when the eclipse begins.
"Each observer made her record in silence, and then we turned and faced
one another, with record in hand--we differed more than a second; it was
a large difference.
"Between first contact and totality there was more than an hour, and we
had little to do but look at the beautiful scenery and watch the slow
motion of a few clouds, on a height which was cloud-land to dwellers by
the sea.
"Our photographer begged us to keep our positions while he made a
picture of us. The only value to the picture is the record that it
preserves of the parallelism of the three telescopes. You would say it
was stiff and unnatural, did you not know that it was the ordering of
Nature herself--they all point to the centre of the solar system.
"As totality approached, all again took their positions. The corona,
which is the 'glory' seen around the sun, was visible at least thirteen
minutes before totality; each of the party took a look at this, and then
all was silent, only the count, on and on, of the young woman at the
chronometer. When totality came, even that ceased.
"How still it was!
"As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona burst out all
around the sun, so intensely bright near the sun that the eye could
scarcely bear it; extending less dazzlingly bright around the sun for
the space of about half the sun's diameter, and in some directions
sending off streamers for millions of miles.
Pages:
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247