Prof. Schaeberle's Trip To Chili

The feUowing aniño relative to Prof. J. M. Schaeberle, who is so well known here, and of whom Ann Arbor and tlie (Jniversity is proud, is taken frum tlie Chicago [nter t tcean : Professor J. M. ESchaeberle, of tlie Lick obaervatory, stepped from the deck of the steamer City of Paris this afternoori (June 24) wftli an elastic Btride and a contented look on liis face. He had evcry rcason te feel Batisfled with himself. The reason was that he had ust returned from a trip, whieb ii taken in one direction would extend half way around the earth, for the sake of proving tt theory, which he had about the cause of the corona of tlie SUn as it appears during a total eclipse, and he had the satisfaction of knowing that his fonner belief had been siihstantiated. Further tlian this, he has taken the largest photographs whicli have ever been taken of an eclipse of the sun. To do this he was couipelled to take a journey of nearly 12,000 miles in a country where all kinds of fevers prevailed. Professor Schaeberle was extremely anxious to get some good photographs of the appearance of the sun wliile behind the moon on April lti last. He started from San Francisco on Jan. 25. In talking on the subject to-day the professor said : " Yes, iny mechanical theory of the solar corona has been proven by the unsentimental photographic píate. I ani perfectly satisñel with the results of my voyage." Everything went well from beginning to end, and I could not have had better weather, if I had had it made to order. My tirst stopping place was Carrizal Baho, in Chili. There I was met by Ir. King, the British consul, wIhi gave me valuable assistance all the tfme I was in South America. From there I went to Yeroa Bueno and found that that piare was twenty-Hve miles one side of the die ui the totality of the eclipse. The next day 1 took a train for Merciditas and 1 found that this town was vet live miles from the line of totality. PHOTOQKAPHS THE CORONA. "I leurned that there was acopper mine in the mountains about uiteen miles a way, at a point about 4,000 feet higher than any other poiut in the vicinity. I decided to inake a trial of this place, and I found it suited my requirements exactly. It was 7,oiH) feet above the sea leveí, and the presence of the mining people made my taak amuch eaeier one than it would have been if I had been obliged to depend upon the natives for assistance. I found that this .-.pol was verv nearly within the line of totality. 1 started to work immediately. The big forty-foot telescope with a fiveinch lens was placed in exactly tlie po sition that it was to OCCUpy at the moment of the eclipse, and could not be moved at tlie critical time. The plates used in the big telescope were eighteeu by twenty-two inches. Besides the big instrument, I had a Clark equatorial, with a six-inch lens and a six-foot focus, a six-inch Dallmeyer lens, with a threeloot focus, and two sinall cameras. In all 1 made about flftv negatives of the corona. I made eight negatives with the I ï tr telescope which are larger than any which have ever before been taken by anybody of an eclipse. I made a number of observations every night to discover the absorption of the atmosphere. I also pliotográphed a aumber of the important Bouthern clusters of stars and bodies which cannot be seen in the Northern sky. 1 was there tour weeks, and there was only one day in that time on which if the eclipse liad taken place it could not have been seen. On the big plates the carona shows the ful! lengtfi of the plates, and the details are brougbt out with gr e at precisión. Tlie photographs taken with the smaller instrumenta are also valuable. Theydo nol show the corona 80 l'ar away from the sun, natu rally, but the inner cor i is brought out well. The theory which I had before making these observations is proved, 1 think, without a doubt.'1 Q0K0SE0 IN' CHILI. Professor Schaeberle' s theory, which he went to South America to prove, was that the beautitul corona, which appears every time there is a total eclipse oí the sun, "was caused by the tact that tii was covered with immense volcanoes, wnich continually belched forth great masses of molten material, which the sim drew liack to it with a speed which could not be realized. The corona is the ring of litrli t which appears about the moon every time it getfl between the earth and the sun and causes a total eclipse. Many theories have been put forward conceming the cause of the phenomenon. He believes that he has settled the question, and, if so, he has done a good deal for science. On his way back the Professor stopped at Santiago, Chili, and was requested by the members of the Scieutitíc Society of Chili to show some photographs which he had secured. He complied with the request, and the society made him an honorary member, a distinction which has never been conferred upon a foreigner by that society before. The professor will-go to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he was a professor in the Michigan university. After a sliort time there he will return to resume his duties at the Lick observatory. The result of his labore will be developed and printed in the publicatious of the Pacific Astronómica) Society.