File:Astronomy for amateurs (1904) (14781500194).jpg

Identifier: astronomyforamat00flam (find matches)
Title: Astronomy for amateurs
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Flammarion, Camille, 1842-1925 Welby, Frances A. (Frances Alice) tr
Subjects: Astronomy
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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,change with the movement of the Moon), and whatstrikes me most is the distinction in light between thisaureole and the coronal atmosphere; the latter appearsto be a brilliant silvery white, the former is grayer andcertainly less dense. My impression is that there are tiuo solar envelopesof entirely different nature, the corona belonging to theglobe of the Sun, and forming its atmosphere properlyso-called, very luminous; the aureole formed of particlesthat circulate independently round it, probably arisingfrom eruptions, their form as a whole being possibly dueto electric or magnetic forces, counterbalanced by re-sistances of various natures. In our own atmospherethe volcanic eruptions are distinct from the aerialenvelope. The general configuration of this external halo,spreading more particularly in the equatorial zone, issufficiently like that of the eclipse of 1889, published inmy Popular Astronomy, which also corresponded witha minimum of solar energy. The year igoo is in fact 280
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Fig. ^ 8.—Total eclipse of the Sun, Mav 28, 1900, as observed from Elche 1 Spain i. 281 ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS close upon the mimimum of the eleven-year period.This equatorial form is, moreover, what all the astrono-mers w^ere expecting. There can no longer be the slightest doubt that thesolar envelope varies v^ith the activity of the Sun. . . . But the total eclipse lasted a much shorter timethan I have taken to v^rite these lines. The seventy-nine seconds of totality are over. A dazzling lightbursts from the Sun, and tells that the Moon pursuingits orbit has left it. The splendid sight is over. It hasgone like a shadov^. Already over! It is almost a disillusion. Nothingbeautiful lasts in this world. Too sad! If only thecelestial spectacle could have lasted two, three, or fourminutes! It was too short. ... Alas! we are forced to take things as they are. The surprise, the oppression, the terror of some,the universal silence are over. The Sun reappears inhis splendor, and the life of

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