Lunar Eclipses
Full Moons that occur on or very near a node are eclipsed. In cases where the center of Earth, Moon and Sun, are in line at the time of the opposition the Moon passes completely into the shadow cast by the Earth and is totally eclipsed. The Moon's path through the shadow - where it cannot reflect the suns light - takes up to one hour forty minutes. The length of time from the first to the last contact with the surrounding half shadow generally last five to six hours. Eclipses can also be partial and are then measured by the percentage of the moon's disc that passes through the shadow.
This general description disregards several factors that are important for the experiment. Eclipses do not occur in isolation - they never recur with exactly the same background. No series of test made during an eclipse is like any other form-type, color, duration of effect. The following survey attempts to follow one phenomenon only, namely the strength of formative trend that the saps show in the pictures during these constellations. It must be observed whether even slight changes in form strength become evident during eclipses of the moon.
All the lunar eclipses that took place between 1955 and 1961 were studied, but this aspect of the work had to cease when mistletoe in the immediate neighborhood became too scarce to use for the continuation of the experiment.
Plate 21 top row, shows the sap test of mistletoe picked in connection with the partial lunar eclipse on March 24, 1959. This eclipse, during which 19% of the Moons disc was shadowed was visible in Europe. It began at 6:56 p.m. In addition to these times the mistletoe was picked an hour and a half before the eclipse began and half an hour after it ended. The last test in this row was made from mistletoe picked at 8 a.m. the next morning.
It is evident from these pictures that changes in the sap did take place during the eclipse. They can be seen in the gradual weakening of form and in the broad pale upper zone of the test that reached its climax in the next to last picture, the last one showing a strengthening of the formative forces as shown in mistletoe, picked half a hour after the end of the eclipse.
The effect of the eclipse is seen more clearly in the bottom row where the selection of only three test pictures brings out the contrast. The picture showing the maximum effect obtained is placed between those made from mistletoe picked some time before and shortly after the event. The first and last test in the top and bottom rows are duplicates of each other, that is to say are made from the same saps. The middle test in the bottom row is a duplicate of the maximum effect test seen last but one in the top row.
Plate 22 shows similar selections from the full series made during four other partial lunar eclipses on:
Nov 11, 1955 visible in Switzerland where the experiments were made; 6% of the lunar disc was in shadow.
May 24, 1956 invisible in Switzerland: 99% of disk in shadow.
May 3, 1958 invisible in Switzerland; only 3% in shadow
March 2, 1961 invisible in Switzerland; 80% of disc in shadow.
The pictures in the middle, showing the maximum effect registered in each series, stand out from the pictures on the left and right. They show fewer and simpler forms, and are all distinguished by the pale upper zone that marks weak silver effect.
As already mentioned earlier on, two other plants, helleborous foetidus and iris germanica are examined regularly by the same method. The sap is extracted from the rhizome and roots of helleborus, from the rhizome of iris, so that the experiments can be made throughout the year. These two plants, picked at the same times as the mistletoe in different places were also examined during the eclipses. They show more marked effects than the leaves and stem of mistletoe often did. Selections of the series made with helleborous and iris will be used to demonstrate the effects of two total lunar eclipses on November 18, 1956 and November 7, 1957. Both were partially visible in Europe.
Plate 23 Top Rows. The three tests in the top row were made from helleborous plants uprooted an hour before the eclipse, during the middle, and an hour after the end of the eclipse.
Bottom rows: The three iris plants used to show the eclipse of 1956 were taken out of the ground at the same time as the helleborous shown in the top row.
The series made in 1957 included pickings 40 minutes before as well as at the beginning ofd the eclipse. The first iris picture on the left was obtained from plants picked at the same time as the helleborous, that is in the middle and at the end of the eclipse.
The sap of both plants underwent considerable changes during these eclipses. The formative power that was present so strongly before and after the event was very much weakened during the time the moon was in the deepest shadow. In the case of helleborous during the eclipse of November 1956, the somewhat weaker form strength dissolved entirely in a bluish violet color. The contrast with the formed tests, that are a warm golden pink color is very marked. The bluish violet helleborous picture is very rare. We have only two other examples.
Lunar eclipses are specially interesting because the formative power in the plant saps weakens when the light of the moon is withdrawn from the earth. The changes in formative trend observed up to now is doubly interesting that plant saps change during lunar eclipses even when these are invisible in the area where the plants grow. The observations made during lunar eclipses bring still further support for the statement that the formative power in plant saps is connected with the moon.
Solar Eclipses
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