Seems like the 1878 eclipse was a better view than what we had here Monday of this year’s eclipse!
Ouachita Telegraph, August 2, 1878, Page 3
THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.
Punctually to the minute the solar eclipse set down by astronomers and the almanacs for Monday, made its advent here. The enterprising people of Monroe, appreciating the exhibition – which was free – were promptly in their places on the sidewalks and streets and in the back-yards, and were all provided with improved telescopes made of little bits of glass, smoked over a candle, a lamp or a pine splinter. DeSiard and Grand streets were crowded. Various reports of the affair have reached us, no two of which agree, except that all the observers were looking heavenward, some of them for the first time in their lives. It is said that the earth got between the sun and the moon, and that that caused the eclipse. The Parish Coroner told us he could see the moon during the eclipse, and several people were certain they could see stars. But, the most learned observers we have found are the young gentlemen who smoke cigarettes on the on the back streets and call their fathers “the old man.” What they do not know, cannot be explained.
Discarding all these reports, so wide apart are they, we shall accept our own, since that, we believe, is reliable. It was calculated that the eclipse would begin at New Orleans at 51 minutes after 3 o’clock. It began here, according to our observation, exactly 8 minutes sooner. A light cloud was passing over the sun at the time, but a small obscured spot on the sun’s limb was perceptible. The little cloud passed off, and in two minutes, the beginning of the eclipse was plainly to be seen. Fortunately, the sky was clear, although the horizon in ever direction was packed with heavy clouds. The moon, now new, (as it always is in solar eclipses,) sailed stealthily along between the sun and earth, and the limb of the sun became more and more obscured. At 25 minutes after 4 o’clock, the sun appeared as a well-defined crescent, the horns of which were pointing downward and then, the sun’s disc became obscured, and at 4:40 there was but a small bright crescent left. Three minutes later, this bright crescent shifted to the top of the sun, the ends, or horns, becoming blunt. The sun-light was now dim, like twilight. The cocks crew once, twice and thrice, and the chickens, guineas and other fowls sought their roosts. The little boys and girls who fill their mammas’ baskets with fresh eggs, know all the old hens by name, and take care of the little chicks, were tickled to death to see the chickens going to roost. But, there was still good light, and lamps were not needed.
At 4:46, the sun’s bright crescent again shifted and to the south, and the eclipse, only partial here, began to pass off, ending we do not know when, as our interest in it ceased when the nearest approach to totality was over.
The difference in the temperature of the atmosphere might have been felt, and certainly was, from the reports we have received, but the thermometer failed to record it. In one hour the change was only one degree, and this happens ever day.
And now, it is our melancholy duty to announce that there will not be another solar eclipse, visible here, during this century.
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 