According to the drawing of Mr. J. E. Keeler at the eclipse
of 1878, it enveloped the sun as a hazy glow, extending for a distance
of several minutes of arc from the sun's limb and at two nearly opposite
points is extended out in two long streamers feathering off into space.
The opinion has been that this light was due to an atmosphere extending
millions of miles from the sun. According to Dr. Hastings' view, it must
be light from the sun which has undergone refraction, i.e., which has
been bent from its regular course by the interposition of an opaque body
like the moon.
In order to make this perfectly plain, suppose the front of a surface
of waves of any sort to be striking an object which resists them. If
an organ of sense is placed in the resisting object, it will judge the
direction of the waves or the direction of the object producing them by
a line at right angles with the wave front. Now suppose a body is placed
between the body producing the waves and the sensitive organ. The waves
must go around this body and will produce an eddy behind it, so that the
wave front will have a different direction, and the organ of sense will
conceive the origin of the waves to lie in a direction different from
that before the body was interposed.
Pages:
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166