Article
Online Exhibitions: Eclipse of 1923
Butler was scheduled to travel to Ensenada, Baja California (Mexico), with the Lick Observatory Group to witness the eclipse of 1923. At the last minute, he caught a cold and didn't want to travel to Baja and "rough it," so he stayed in his summer home in Santa Barbara and traveled to nearby Lompoc to see the eclipse. (There was no U.S. Naval Observatory Expedition this year, and Mitchell and the University of Virginia group went instead to San Diego.) Butler was lucky; the astronomers in Baja and San Diego were "clouded out," whereas he saw the eclipse through scattered clouds in Lompoc. Butler prepared a special "observing chair" from which to watch the eclipse, and had this with him in Lompoc. Although alone, he was well prepared to paint the eclipse.
The text below is from a pamphlet, The Three Solar Eclipses Seen in the United States in 1918, 1923, and 1925: The First Examples of American Museum Methods of Education Applied to Astronomy, printed by the American Museum of Natural History on the occasion of the gift of the eclipse triptych for the proposed Hall of Astronomy, which Butler designed but which was never built. Most likely, Butler, who was an advisor to the museum at this time, provided the text about the eclipses:
This eclipse reached totality at 12:59 P.M., and since it was almost a noon-day eclipse, the long axis of the corona was practically horizontal. The time was nearer the period of minimum sun-spots, and as was to be expected the corona was more extended. It was seen in a gap between two clouds.
Mr. Butler having practically finished his notes during the period of totality, was surprised by the first Baily's bead of the third contact, that is, the first appearance of a speck of the photosphere, evidently between two volcanic peaks on the rough edge of the moon. This appeared like an orange ball of great brilliancy resting on the upper limb of the moon. For a few seconds the corona remained, and Venus, slightly more than one degree above the moon, continued to shine brilliantly. He concluded to make this combined effect, commonly known as the diamond-ring effect, his picture.‚—ã
The text below is from a pamphlet, The Three Solar Eclipses Seen in the United States in 1918, 1923, and 1925: The First Examples of American Museum Methods of Education Applied to Astronomy, printed by the American Museum of Natural History on the occasion of the gift of the eclipse triptych for the proposed Hall of Astronomy, which Butler designed but which was never built. Most likely, Butler, who was an advisor to the museum at this time, provided the text about the eclipses:
This eclipse reached totality at 12:59 P.M., and since it was almost a noon-day eclipse, the long axis of the corona was practically horizontal. The time was nearer the period of minimum sun-spots, and as was to be expected the corona was more extended. It was seen in a gap between two clouds.
Mr. Butler having practically finished his notes during the period of totality, was surprised by the first Baily's bead of the third contact, that is, the first appearance of a speck of the photosphere, evidently between two volcanic peaks on the rough edge of the moon. This appeared like an orange ball of great brilliancy resting on the upper limb of the moon. For a few seconds the corona remained, and Venus, slightly more than one degree above the moon, continued to shine brilliantly. He concluded to make this combined effect, commonly known as the diamond-ring effect, his picture.‚—ã
