The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

FROM A LIVERPOOL PAPER.
GREAT ECLIPSE.

The Astronomers are occupied in calculating the eclipse of the Sun, which will take place on the 7th of September next. This eclipse will be visible over an extent of more than four million of square leagues, a surface nearly equal to a sixth-part of the earth, and resembling a kind of oval of about 7500 leagues in circumference, comprising all Europe, the western parts of Asia, all Africa as far as to Mesopotamia, and a part of North-America. The eclipse will last three hours. It will be the greatest of all those which happened in this part of Europe ever since the year 1764, and indeed, of all those that will again happen here, before the year 1847. Like the two eclipses here alluded to, it will be annular; that is, the disc of the moon will not wholly cover the disc of the sun, but in certain parts of the earth the sun will show the appearance of an annulus, or ring, round the body of the moon, the position and magnitude of which will depend on the situation of the spectator. In no part of England will this annular appearance be observed; it will be seen, however, in the Shetland Islands. On the Continent, in any part of that track of the country which extends nearly in a straight line from the north of Westphalia to the south of Italy, the inhabitants will have an opportunity of beholding this singular phenomenon.