Custer Weekly Chronicle

Sun Eclipsed at Midnight.

London Times: The ordinary almanac gave for December 13 a partial eclipse of the sun, invisible at Greenwich. And indeed the expression as to its invisibility might have been put much stronger, for it was to be seen in no inhabited region of the earth. An Antarctic expedition might possibly have sailed within its sphere of influence, but as it was it passed unwatched by human eyes. This being so, and the eclipse one that was necessarily wholly unseen, it would seem as if nothing more could be said about it, and as if it might be passed without comment. But, unseen as it was, the eclipse was by no means devoid of interest. First of all, it offers us an example of what seems a paradox--an eclipse of the sun taking place at local midnight. It is, moreover, the first of three eclipses falling within a period no longer than a single calendar month. December 27 will bring a total eclipse of the moon at Greenwich--January 11 a partial eclipse of the sun. And the three are very intimately connected with each other. The latter in nearly all its characteristics stands in strong contrast to the eclipse of December 13--a large partial eclipse which will be seen just outside the borders of the Arctic regions at their midday and in their midwinter. Nor is this sequence accidental. A similar triplet of eclipses--the first partial of the sun and seen near the south pole, the second total of the moon, the third partial of the sun and visible near the north pole--occurred just eighteen years ago, all three eclipses falling in December, 1880. Going back yet another eighteen years we find the same thing repeated some ten days earlier in the year, and so on right away backward till 1664, when, while the southern eclipse was a large partial one and fell nearly in the midwinter of the southern hemisphere, the northern was a mere graze taking place at the midnight of the regions from which it was visible. Looking forward we find in like manner that eighteen years hence another similar triplet of eclipses will fall at the turn of the year, and yet another eighteen years later still. This ends the series of these midnight eclipses of the sun in the south polar regions, for January, 1953, will be marked only by a total eclipse of the moon.

The trite expression, "there are others," is rarely used save by the others.