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Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy pp 447–479Cite as

The 1885 Total Solar Eclipse: An Amazing Public Spectacle

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Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 422))

Abstract

The second half of the nineteenth century saw a blossoming of interest in solar eclipses as astronomers tried to establish whether the corona was a solar, lunar or terrestrial phenomenon, and as they investigated the nature of the corona, the chromosphere and prominences. Critical in these investigations were astronomy’s newest allies: photography and spectroscopy. Photography was used with great effectiveness throughout the half century, but spectroscopy was first applied during the ‘Indian eclipse’ of 1868. Thereafter, almost every total solar eclipse was subjected to scrutiny, the intensity of which depended upon the duration of the eclipse and the location of its path of totality. The first total solar eclipse visible from New Zealand since the introduction of scientific astronomy occurred on 9 September 1885, and attracted the attention of professional scientists, amateur astronomers and—overwhelmingly—the general public. The centre of the path of totality extended from West Wanganui Inlet on the far northern reaches of the west coast of the South Island to Castlepoint on the Wairarapa Coast in the North Island, and a total eclipse was visible from population centres like Collingwood, Nelson, Wellington, Feilding and Dannevirke. In this chapter we briefly examine the scientific investigation of this eclipse before looking at the ways in which the nation’s newspapers portrayed the eclipse and used it as a vehicle to promote a popular interest in astronomy among the general public.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A companion paper (Orchiston and Rowe 2016) examines in detail the astronomers who observed this eclipse, their instruments and their observations; discusses the place of the 1885 eclipse in the overall pattern of professional and amateur astronomy in New Zealand between 1874 and 1885; and examines the contribution that this particular eclipse made to our international understanding of solar physics.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the following for their assistance: the late Robert Campbell (Oamaru, NZ), Wayne Hammond (Chapin Library, Williams College, USA), the late Peter Hingley (former RAS Librarian, London), Lynne Huddlestone (Cawthron Institute, Nelson, NZ), Jan Meeus (Belgium), Joanna Szczepanski (Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, NZ), the late Jackie St George (Sydney) and staff at the Alexander Turnbull Library (Wellington, NZ). I also wish to thank the Alexander Turnbull Library, Canterbury Museum, Cawthron Institute, Feilding Public Library (NZ), and Williams College for kindly supplying Figs. 16.10, 16.11, 16.14, 16.16 and 16.19.

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  1. National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Wayne Orchiston

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Orchiston, W. (2016). The 1885 Total Solar Eclipse: An Amazing Public Spectacle. In: Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 422. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22566-1_16

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