The Sun Kings by Stuart Clark

Author:Stuart Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Warren de la Rue, to the left with his back turned, and his team at Rivabellosa prepare for the coming eclipse. The front has been removed from the observatory, showing the Kew photoheliograph in place. The doorway into the darkroom can be glimpsed to the right. (Image: Royal Astronomical Society)

Shortly afterward the ground shook with hooves as five mounted guards rode into the village. They placed themselves at the disposal of the astronomers and defined a perimeter around the thrashing floor, forbidding the two hundred-strong crowd to pass. The guards were a welcome sight; before their arrival, curiosity had overwhelmed a few of the bystanders who crept to the wooden observatory to peer inside at the outlandish equipment and its human masters before being shooed away by the astronomers.

With twenty minutes to go, an alarming smell arrested De la Rue’s attention. Something was burning. The crackling of a fire drew his gaze. Juan’s discarded matches had set fire to some loose corn, lying on the thrashing floor. Grabbing the water bucket used to wet the tent, De la Rue made haste to extinguish the fire before it spread any closer to their vulnerable wooden observatory.

Returning to his position he waited anxiously. As the appointed time approached, he asked his staff to prepare the first plate. They set the chemicals and loaded them into the photoheliograph, but the moment of the Moon’s first contact with the Sun did not arrive as expected. Puzzled, De la Rue checked the time on the clocks and revealed his mistake. The pocket watch was fast by some 8 minutes 11 seconds. With horror he realized that the chemically delicate plates would be ruined in that time and he ordered his team to begin preparing new ones as fast as possible.

He watched the Moon’s limb take its first tentative bite out of the Sun at 1:56 P.M. but the plates were not ready until 2:02 P.M., when they were duly loaded and exposed. The photography then continued throughout the eclipse. Ten minutes later, as the Moon covered a sunspot group, clouds spontaneously formed, blotting out the Sun. The astronomers halted their observations and watched anxiously for six minutes until the clouds melted away again. They hurriedly resumed their tasks.

As more and more of the Sun disappeared behind the Moon, De la Rue noticed the azure blue of the sky giving way to an indigo tint. Around him, the landscape assumed a bronze hue. He wondered what the spectral analysis of Kirchhoff and Bunsen would reveal about this change in the Sun’s rays. When the Moon reduced the Sun to a narrow crescent, he saw the shadows cast by the equipment became suddenly sharp. They reminded him of the well-defined shadows produced by electric lights. As totality finally arrived, the landscape fell into darkness and the assembled crowd suddenly hushed. Church bells tolled across the valley. De le Rue began sketching through the telescope. He could make out the sepia-tinged lunar surface that sat in front of

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