Word: shapleys
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...eclipse arrived just four seconds behind schedule as far as we can determine", said Professor Harlow Shapley of the University Observatory last evening, while commenting on the part played by University astronomical experts in observing the eclipse...
Professor Shapley said that he had been at Buffalo and was naturally disappointed by the interference of the clouds there, but he went on to say: "While I didn't see the eclipse, I heard it all across the country. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company had arranged special wires between seven stations, Buffalo, Ithaca, Poughkeepsic, Middletown, Easthampton, Northampton and New York City. As the period of totality approached, the operator at each station in turn, beginning of course with Buffalo, reported the weather conditions and the time. When the actual phase of totality set on a certain prearranged signal...
...will be the first total eclipse of the sun over Boston since 1806," continued Dr. Shapley, "and if the day is clear, it will be witnessed by ten million people, more than have ever before seen a total eclipse of the sun. Strangely enough, the eclipse will be total in the north part of New York City but not in the south, and in southern Providence, but not in the northern part of the city, where the Brown University observatory is located. Duluth, Buffalo, Rochester, Hartford, New Haven, New London and Nantucket will be among the places lying within...
...Shapley also mentioned the fact that Harvard University sponsored the first eclipse expedition ever sent out from an American institution, which left Boston in 1780. After special arrangements with the British forces who then held the Maine coast, the astronomical party was allowed to land at Penobscot Bay, though it was forbidden to communicate with the inhabitants. The observations were successful and instructive, being of great value to mariners as well as astronomers, for at that time the moon's position was not so accurately known...
...Shapley advised amateurs, who wish to observe the eclipse properly, to provide themselves with smoked glasses and an ordinary pair of field glasses. "Among the interesting things for which to watch," he continued, "are the directions shadow bands on the ground take...