Total Eclipse

The total eclipse of the sun which will occur in Mexico and southern California on September 10 next is attracting world-wide attention because it will afford another opportunity for verification of the deflection of starlight calculated by the theory of relativity. Expeditions from all over the world will set up observation posts in the path of the eclipse, which will cover a curved patch about 105 miles in length, from Santa Catalina Island, across Lower California, and the state of Sonora to Durango. The period of totality will last not more than five minutes at any point. The eclipse will be visible at Santa Barbara, and 19/20ths of the sun's disk will be hidden at Los Angeles. It is the most important astronomical event of the year. Among the expeditions will be those of Camille Flammarion, director of the Paris Observatory; Dr. John A. Miller, of Sproul Observatory, Swarthmore College; Dr. A. E. Douglass, of the Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, and Dr. Hans Ludendorff, brother of the well known general, who will conduct a party of German scientists at the expense of the Mexican Government. Einstein himself has announced that he will go to Mexico, and thousands of scientific men are expected to visit southern California. Dr. William Wallace Campbell, of the Lick Observatory, who recently announced the success of the Einstein measurements on the Australian solar eclipse of last year, however, considers the matter so thoroughly proved that he will not make special plans for observation this time. Besides the photography of stars near the sun's edge, astronomers will devote themselves to tho study of several other problems, including spectroscopic analysis of the sun's corona and the as yet unexplained acceleration of the moon's motion in its orbit.