Eclipse of May 1947

I am still on an antiquarian jag. I am going through all the newspaper reports prior to Kenneth Arnold's sighting to get a feel for the esoteric news of the year. I don't know that anyone has brought up that there was an eclipse - something that aliens may or may not have been interested in. Earthlings sure were.

Below you will see powerful American organizations drag 75 tons of equipment up a Brazilian mountain after getting it through merciless jungle. They paid homage to relativity. Elsewhere native peoples went a little berserk in shock and paid homage to their cultural gods.

Which of these two groups performed in the most natural manner? Perhaps both.



The Miami News 20 May 1947 Page 3

Savages Fire Arrows In Sky To Save Sun

(Editor's Note: From the heart of the Brazilian jungle, thousands of miles from Rio de Janeiro, a special United Press correspondent reports the reaction of the savage natives to the solar eclipse.)

By Orlando Villasboas (United Press Staff Correspondent) On the Upper Xingu River. May 20.-

"Is the sun going to die?"

Terrified Xingu river savages of the Camiulas and Trumas tribes rushed to our camp with that question today as the sun passed into the shadow of the moon and a chill spread over the tropical jungle.

We had not told the Indians of the approaching eclipse and when the sun began to disappear the 200 tribesmen near here were frightened.

They ran to us with expressions of fear and mystification and pointed to the sky.

"Is the sun going to die?" they asked. "Let the sun live."

They then raced to the river's bank and tossed into the stream all the food they had cooked as a sacrifice to appease the gods.

Children and women seized ashes from the campfire and smeared them over their faces to propitiate the angry spirits.

Warriors grabbed their bows and shot arrows into the sky toward the sun.

Finally, as the eclipse passed totality and the light from the sun grew stronger the tribesmen sank back in relief – confident that their sacrifices had appeased the angry gods.

When the eclipse was over we tried to explain it to the Indians. But they would have none of it.

They said that a monster had attacked the sun and finally had been driven off. Others believed the sun had angered the gods but that the gods finally had decided not to kill it.

Eclipse Blacks Out Sun Across Brazil's Jungles U.S. Scientists Report Favorable Conditions Hope For New Facts From Phenomenon Bocayuva, Brazil, May 20. - (UP) -

The sun's total eclipse was observed today under virtually perfect conditions with the moon's passage across the sun's face throwing the semi-jungle land into darkness through which stars shone palely in the sky.

A quarter hour before the period of totality began scattered clouds moved out of the path of the sun, allowing scientists to make their observations with a minimum of atmospheric interruption.

The moon completely blacked out the sun at 9:34:8 a. m., exactly as scientists had forecast. At 9:38.6 a. m., totality ended as the moon completing its quick transit of the sun's rays, moved on and the sun's light again broke through to the earth.

Dr. Carl C. Kless of the National Bureau of Standards at Washington said that "our program of observations was carried out according to schedule. The skies were favorable. But we will not be able to say for some time what the results were."

Specially equipped planes circles overhead at 30,000 feet taking photographs of various phases of the eclipse and made a special attempt to photograph the shadow of the eclipse racing across the earth's surface.



Much U S. Equipment



Seventy United States scientists had set up 75 tons of equipment at Bocayuva, where long range predictions were for the best observation of the eclipse.

Scientists hoped to obtain supporting evidence for the Einstein theory of relativity, which holds that space is curved, and make new checks on the mysterious activities of cosmic rays.

The eclipse was charted to move from the Pacific coast of Chile southeastward across South America and over the Atlantic tothe African gold coast. A shadow about 104 miles wide was calculated, reaching total darkness in the Brazilian areas where observation parties took their posts.



Last Eclipse Until 1955



Exceptional scientific preparations were made because this was the last total eclipse until 1955.

The American expedition, largest of the 11 nations represented, was sponsored jointly by the U. S. army air forces, the National Geographic Society and the Bureau of Standards. Dr. Layman J. Briggs, chairman of the Geographic Society's research committee, head {sic} the group.

Bocayuva was chosen as the American observation point because weather records showed it to have exceptionally clear weather during late May. It is a town of 3,000 on the 2,172-foot high Matto Grosso plateau.