Record

PP - Proceedings Papers
- 2 - Scientific papers published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society volume 34, 1882-1883

RefNo	PP/2/37
Previous numbers	PP/34/39
Level	Item
Title	Paper, 'On a method of photographing the solar corona without an eclipse' by William Huggins
Date	1882
Description	Huggins writes: 'Problems of the highest interest in the physics of our sun are connected, doubtless, with the varying forms which the coronal light is known to assume, but these would seem to admit of solution only on the condition of its being possible to study the corona continuously, and so to be able to confront its changes with the other variable phenomena which the Sun presents. "Unless some means be found," says Professor C A Young, “for bringing out the structures round the sun which are hidden by the glare of our atmosphere, the progress of our knowledge must be very slow, for the corona is visible only about eight days in a century, in the aggregate, and then only over narrow stripes on the Earth’s surface, and but from one to five minutes at a time by any one observer." The spectroscopic method of viewing the solar prominences fails because a large part of the coronal light gives a continuous spectrum'. The successful photograph of the spectrum of the corona taken in Egypt, with an instrument provided with a slit, under the superintendence of Professor Schuster during the solar eclipse of May 17 1882, shows that the coronal light as a whole, that is the part which gives a continuous spectrum, as well as the other part of the light which may be resolved into bright lines, is very strong in the region of the spectrum extending from about G to H. It appeared to me, therefore, very probable that by making exclusive use of this portion of the spectrum it might be possible under certain conditions, about to be described, to photograph the corona without an eclipse.' Annotations in pencil and ink. Subject: Astronomy / Photography Received 13 December 1882. Read 21 December 1882. A version of this paper was published in volume 34 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On a method of photographing the solar corona without an eclipse'.
Extent	16p
Format	Manuscript
PhysicalDescription	Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Digital images	View item on Science in the Making
AccessStatus	Open
RelatedMaterial	DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1882.0058

Fellows associated with this archive

Code	PersonName	Dates
NA7376	Huggins; Sir; William (1824 - 1910); astronomer	1824 - 1910

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