Paper, 'On a method of photographing the solar corona without an eclipse' by William Huggins
Reference number: PP/2/37
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'.
- Reference number
- PP/2/37
- Earliest possible date
- 1882
- Physical description
- Ink and graphite pencil on paper
- Page extent
- 16 pages
- Format
- Manuscript
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Citation
William Huggins, Paper, 'On a method of photographing the solar corona without an eclipse' by William Huggins, 1882, PP/2/37, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/pp_2_37/paper-on-a-method-of-photographing-the-solar-corona-without-an-eclipse-by-william-huggins, accessed on 15 February 2025
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Related Publications
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III. On a method of photographing the solar corona without an eclipse External link, opens in new tab.
Date: 31st December 1883
DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1882.0058
Hierarchy
This item is part of:
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Scientific papers published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society volume 34, 1882-1883
1882-1883 Reference number: PP/2
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William Huggins
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Proceedings Papers
Dates: 1882 - 1894
The archival collection known as 'Proceedings Papers' is comprised of manuscripts and occasional proofs of scientific papers sent to the Royal Society which were read before meetings of Fellows and printed in full in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.View collection