Abstract
The 18 August 1868 total solar eclipse was a watershed event in the history of solar physics, and a notable event in the history of Thai astronomy. This was the first solar eclipse subjected to detailed spectroscopic scrutiny, and the first solar eclipse investigated scientifically by Thai and Western scholars since King Narai and French Jesuit missionary-astronomers observed the partial solar eclipse of 30 April 1688 from Lop Buri.
While the major scientific breakthroughs made during the 1868 eclipse derived for the most part from India—where there were teams of English and French astronomers—the French also dispatched a second observing team, to Thailand, and they and King Rama IV and his entourage made successful observations of this important celestial event.
In this chapter we focus mainly on the French expedition to Thailand, which was based at Wah-koa in the Gulf of Thailand, and we examine the associated personnel, the selection and establishment of their observing station, the scientific instruments that they used and the observations that they made.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Writing after his return to Paris, Stephan remarked (1869: 17) that despite their initial uneasiness, in fact he and his colleagues never caught sight of any of tigers.
- 2.
It is interesting that Georges Rayet included the spectroscopic observations of prominences and the corona that he made during this Siamese eclipse in his doctoral thesis, which was submitted in 1871 (Levy 2008).
- 3.
During their Wha-koa sojourn, ten members of the French expedition caught malaria, but King Rama IV, who was based nearby, was the principal casualty: he also contracted malaria during the eclipse expedition and died soon after, on 1 October (Aubin 2010).
- 4.
One of King Rama IV’s guests was Sir Harry Ord, the Governor of Singapore, and his involvement in the August 1868 eclipse is examined by Orchiston and Orchiston (2018).
References
Astrophysical Journal, 25, facing page 53 (1907).
Aubin, D., 2010. Eclipse politics in France and Thailand, 1868. In D. Aubin, C. Bigg, & H.O. Sibim (Eds.), The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture (pp. 86–117). Durham (North Carolina): Duke University Press.
Bacon, G.B. (1881). Siam. The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and Is. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Baum, R. (2014). Rayet, Georges-Antoine-Pons. In T. Hockey et al., pp. 1803–1804.
Bosler, J. (1924). Édouard Stephan. Honorary Director of the Marseille Observatory (1837–1923). Journal des Observateurs, 7, 9–10 (in French).
Brenni, P. (1994). 19th century French scientific instrument makers. III: Lerebours and Secretan. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 40, 3–6.
Brenni, P. (1996). 19th century French scientific instrument makers. XIII: Soleil, Duboscq, and their successors. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 51, 7–16.
Bulletin de la Société Astronomique de France (1913).
Clerke, A.M. (1893). A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. London: Adam & Charles Black.
Cook, N. (1993). A tale of two city pillars: Mongkut and Thai astrology on the eve of modernization. In G. Wijeyewardene, & E.C. Chapman (Eds.), Patterns and Illusions: Thai History and Thought (pp. 276–304). Canberra: Australian National University, Department of Anthropology.
Debarbat, S. (2014). Tisserand, Francois-Felix. In T. Hockey et al., p. 2160.
de Gramont, A., & Peigné, P. (1902). Musée Rétrospectif de la Classe 15 Instruments de Précision à l’Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1900 à Paris. Rapport du Comité d’Installation. Saint-Cloud: Belin.
Eichens, W. (1868). Undated invoice. Paris Observatory Archives (Ms 1060-I-A, Comptabilité, Exercice 1867, Bordereau No. 24, dated March 1868).
Espenak, F., & Meeus, J. (2006). Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses: −1999 to +3000. Greenbelt: NASA (Technical Publication TP-2006-214141).
Euarchukiati, V. (2015). Siamese Astronomical Archives: From the Reigns of King Rama V to Rama VIII. Chiang Mai: National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (in Thai).
Foucault, L. (1862). Draft case prepared for Le Verrier. Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, Paris (Ms 3711, Eichens envelope, item 7).
Georgelin, Y., & Arzano, S. (1999). The eclipse of the Sun of 18 August 1868, Stephan and Rayet, hosts of the King of Siam at Wah-Thonne. L’astronomie, 113, 12–17 (in French).
Georges Rayet. Astrophysical Journal, 25, 53–54 (1907).
Grillot, S. (2014). Wolf, Charles-Joseph-Étiene. In T. Hockey et al., pp. 2365–2366.
Hearnshaw, J.B. (1986). The Analysis of Starlight. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Astronomical Spectroscopy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hockey, T. et al. (2014). Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. 2nd Edition. New York: Springer.
Janssen, J. (1868). An indication of several of the results obtained at Cocanada [sic] during the eclipse of last August, and the sequel to this eclipse. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 67, 838–839 (in French).
Janssen, J. (1869a). On the existence of a hydrogen atmosphere around the Sun. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 68, 112 (in French).
Janssen, J. (1869b). On the spectral study of solar prominences. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 68, 93–95 (in French).
Janssen, J. (1869c). Spectral observations made during the eclipse of 18 August 1868, and a method for observing prominences outside of eclipses. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 68, 367–376 (in French).
Janssen, J. (1869d). A summary of acquired ideas on the composition of the Sun. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 68, 312–314 (in French).
Kramer, B., & Kramer, M. (2017). King Rama V and British observations of the 6 April 1875 total solar eclipse from the Chao Lai Peninsula, Siam. In T. Nakamura, & W. Orchiston.
Lankford, J. (1984). The impact of photography on astronomy. In O. Gingerich (Ed.), The General History of Astronomy. Volume 4. Astrophysics and Twentieth-Century Astronomy to 1950: Part A (pp. 16–39). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Launay, F. (2012). The Astronomer Jules Janssen: Globetrotter of Celestial Physics. New York: Springer.
Lequeux, J. (2013). Le Verrier – Magnificent and Detestable Astronomer. New York: Springer.
Levy, J.R. (2008). Rayet George-Antoine-Pons. In Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons (http://www.encyclopedia.com)
Lingberg, O. (1985). King Mongkut’s solar eclipse. Astronomy, 13(1), 24–26.
Lockyer, J.N., (1887). Chemistry of the Sun. London: Macmillan and Co.
Meadows, A.J. (1970). Early Solar Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Moffat, A.L. (1968). Mongkut, the King of Siam. Ithica: Cornell University Press.
Mumpuni, E.S., Orchiston, W., & Steinicke, W. (2017). J.A.C. Oudemans’ observations of the 18 August 1868 and 12 December 1871 total solar eclipses from the Dutch East Indies. In T. Nakamura, & W. Orchiston.
Nakamura, T., & Orchiston, W. (Eds.) (2017). The Emergence of Astrophysics in Asia: Opening a New Window on the Universe. Cham: Springer.
Nath, B.B. (2013). The Story of Helium and the Birth of Astrophysics. New York: Springer.
Orchiston, W., & Orchiston, D.L (2018). Sir Harry Ord and the total solar eclipse of 18 August 1868: power, politics and astronomy. In W.Orchiston, & M. Vahia (Eds.), Exploring the History of Southeast Asian Astronomy: A Review of Current Projects and Future Prospects and Possibilities. Cham: Springer.
Orchiston, W., Lee, E.-H. & Ahn, Y.-S. (2017). British observations of the 18 August 1868 total solar eclipse from Guntoor, India. In T. Nakamura, & W. Orchiston.
Pearson, J. (2010). The Role of the 40 Foot Schaeberle Camera in the Lick Observatory Investigations of the Solar Corona. Ph.D. thesis, Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
Rosenfeld, L. (1999). Four Centuries of Clinical Chemistry. Philadelphia: CRC Press.
Saibejra, N. (2006). King Mongkut, the Father of Thai Science. In K.-Y. Chen, W. Orchiston, B. Soonthornthum, & R. Strom, R. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Oriental Astronomy (pp. 15–18). Chiang Mai: Chiang Mai University.
Secchi, A. (1863). Schreiben des Herrn Prof. Secchi. Astronomische Nachrichten, 59, 193–196.
Secchi, A. (1867). Spectral studies of some of the planetary nebulae. Astronomical Register, 5, 40.
Stephan, M. (1869). Report on the Observation of the Eclipse of the Sun of 18 August 1868. English translation (pp. [vi] +93) of the French original published in Archives des Missions Scientifique et Littéraires …, 5, 535–610.
Stephan, M. (1870). Voyage of the French Commission sent by the Minister of Education to the eastern coast of the Malacca Peninsula to observe the total solar eclipse of 18 August 1868. Annales Scientifique de l’E.N.S., 1 (7) (in French).
Tobin, W. (1987). Foucault’s invention of the silvered-glass reflecting telescope and the history of his 80-cm reflector at the Observatoire de Marseille. Vistas in Astronomy, 30, 153–184.
Tobin, W. (2003). The Life and Science of Léon Foucault. The Man who Proved the Earth Rotates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tobin, W. (2014). Stephan, Jean-Marie-Edouard. In T. Hockey et al., pp. 2053–2054.
Tobin, W. (2016). Evolution of the Foucault-Secretan reflecting telescope. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 19, 106–184.
Tuck, P. (1995). The French Wolf and the Siamese Lamb: The French Threat to Siamese Independence, 1858–1907. Bangkok: White Lotus.
Weiss, E. (1867). Remarks on the total solar eclipse of August 17th, 1868. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 27, 305–311.
Wolf, C., & Rayet, G. (1866). Notes on two stars. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 62, 1108–1109 (in French).
Young, C.A. (1902). The Sun. New York: Appleton.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr. James Caplan (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille), Dr. Suzanne Débarbat and Dr. James Lequeux (Observatoire de Paris) and Dr. William Tobin (Vannes, France) for providing information relevant to this chapter, and Bordeaux and Marseille Observatories for kindly supplying Figs. 12.11, 12.13 and 12.14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Orchiston, W., Orchiston, D.L. (2017). King Rama IV and French Observations of the 18 August 1868 Total Solar Eclipse from Wah-koa, Siam. In: Nakamura, T., Orchiston, W. (eds) The Emergence of Astrophysics in Asia. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62082-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62082-4_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62080-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62082-4
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)