Looking Back: Shetland Under The Eclipse

From August 1954

World Scientists in a Northern Parish

One of our northernmost parishes – Yell in Shetland - was a mecca for prominent scientists at the total eclipse of the sun in June, the ‘path of totality’ crossing the far north of Scotland at this point.

We asked the minister of Mid Yell, the Rev FWD Houston, to report n the event and the ‘invasion’ of the island’s quiet.

“When I consider the heavens….” Did the Psalmist in his day experience the awesome sweep of the moon’s shadow across the world? It is possible. But the Psalmist’s interest in astronomy was devotional and theological. It was a personal reaction which he recorded. The main concern, however, of those who sought to view the sun’s eclipse was scientific, and their observations are chiefly based on the recorded reactions of highly sensitive instruments. This does not mean that the observers themselves were insensitive to what happened. Professor Peter van der Kamp, Professor of Astronomy at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania (a Quaker foundation), and leader of the photo-metric mission at Gutcher in the island of Yell, confessed that he had realised the movement of the heavenly bodies in a more deeply personal way than ever before. Mr Corben, a specialist in electronics, was lent to this expedition by the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Mr Norman Matthew, Director of the Calton Hill Observatory, Edinburgh, led the expedition, which operated on Saxavord, the highest hill in the island of Unst.

Another distinguished visitor was Professor Tomaschek who came to Shetland for the purpose of measuring variations in the gravitational pull of the earth but used the opportunity to view the eclipse. I learned that he had at one time been Professor of Physics and a colleague of Professor Rudolf Otto of “Das Heilige” fame, at Marburg University.

Although the main expeditions to Yell and Unst had limited success, three members of the Manchester Astronomical Society decided on the advice of their host to remain at Skaw in the North of Unst, instead of joining the observers on Saxavord. They saw the corona and claimed also that they had observed prominences.

It is interesting to note that the photo-metric expedition at Gutcher was one of eighteen sponsored for the same purpose by the Georgetown University, Washington, the Ohio State University, and the American Geographical Society (not to be confused with the National Geographical Society). These were located all along the belt of totality and included stations in Canada, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Shetland, Sweden, Iran and India. It is surely a portent in these days of dissention and dispeace that such a chain of expeditions should stretch fro West to East, separated by continent, ocean and islands, but united in a common search for knowledge.

Although a few miles to the south of the belt of totality we in Mid Yell were fortunate in having the clearest and longest view of the partial eclipse in the Northern Isles. There was the gradual eclipsing of the world’s light, the sudden darkness, and for the few fortunate observers the bright corona at the moment of total eclipse. The words of the Psalmist, “When I consider the heavens,” changed for me to “When I survey the wonderous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died.” That was the ultimate attempt of Darkness to defeat and destroy the Light of the World. There was darkness also that lay over the earth, a darkness which endured in the hearts of His friends until the third day. But it was the Roman centurion standing in full view of that seeming eclipse of God’s Son, who declared, as if for him the corona of Christ had leapt into view about the blackness of that central Cross, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

In North Yell Parish Church which stands within the belt of totality there are two stained-glass windows. The one above the door and in full view of the preacher is Christ on the Cross, while the other, above the pulpit, for all the people to see, is the Ascended Christ. When the preacher sees and proclaims the One who for our sakes, was willing to suffer a temporary shameful eclipse how can the people fail to see the corona – the crown of Kingly glory?

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