scholarly journals II. On the lunar diurnal variation of magnetic declination at the magnetic equator

1860 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 475-484

This variation, first obtained by M. Kreil, next by myself, and afterwards by General Sabine, presents several anomalies which require careful consideration, and especially a careful examination of the methods employed to obtain the results. The law obtained seems to vary from place to place even in the same hemisphere and in the same latitude, and this to such an extent, that, for example, when the moon is on the inferior meridian at Toronto it produces a minimum of westerly declination; while for the moon on the inferior meridian of Prague and Makerstoun in Scotland it produces a maximum of westerly declination. No two places have as yet given exactly the same result; though the result for each place has been confirmed by the discussion of different periods. In order to obtain the lunar diurnal action, it has been usual to consider the magnetic declination at any time as depending on the sun’s and moon’s hour-angles and on irregular causes. Thus, if at conjunction, H 0 be the variation due to the sun on the meridian, and h 0 be that due to the moon on the meridian, H, the variation for the sun at 1 h , h 1 for the moon on the meridian of 1 h , and so on; it is supposed that we may represent the variations for a series of days by the following expressions, where the nearest values of h to the whole hour-angles are given:-

1872 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 756-758
Author(s):  
J. A. Broun

The author gives the results derived from different discussions of nearly eighty thousand observations, made hourly during the eleven years 1854 to 1864. They are as follows:—1. That the lunar diurnal variation consists of a double maximum and minimum in each month of the year.2. That in December and January the maxima occur near the times of the moon's upper and lower passages of the meridian; while in June and July they occur six hours later, the minima then occurring near the times of the two passages.3. The change of the law for December and January to that for June and July does not happen, as in the case of the solar diurnal variations, by leaps in the course of a month (those of March and October), but more or less gradually for the different maxima and minima.


1862 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 298-302

The discovery by Dr. Lamont of a "decennial” period in the range of the solar diurnal variation of magnetic declination, naturally leads to the question whether a similar law may not exist for the lunar diurnal variation; the question is also of importance in connexion with the theory of the cause of these variations.


1872 ◽  
Vol 20 (130-138) ◽  
pp. 135-136

This paper is in continuation of that “On the Solar Variations of Magnetic Declination at Bombay,” published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1869; but the discussion is confined to the observations of the years 1861 to 1863, which alone have as yet been reduced. The point of principal interest brought out in the discussion is that whilst the mean lunar-diurnal variation is of the ordinary character, having as its principal feature a double oscillation in the lunar day, its range is very small as compared with the several ranges of the lunar-diurnal variations when the sun and moon have several specific varieties of relative position; and moreover, although in those latter variations the double oscillation is generally preserved as a main feature, correspondence of phase in the representative curves is as generally absent; and in some cases the curves are, whilst systematic, altogether different in character from the mean lunar-diurnal variation curve. The semiannual inequality in the lunar-diurnal variation, whilst it is as definitely systematic, has twice the range of the mean lunar, diurnal variation; and it is also subject to remarkable modifications which accompany changes of phase of the moon.


1868 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 59-60

I received late last night No. 91 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society, and desire to offer the following remarks on the abstract of a paper by Mr. Neumayer which I find therein (vol. xv. p. 414). Mr. Neumayer is evidently unacquainted with the Note by me, read to the Royal Society of London in 1861 (Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. x. p. 475), in which I stated as result of the discussions of five years’ observations at Trevandrum (near the magnetic equator) that the lunar-diurnal variation of magnetic declination became inverted, like the solar-diurnal variation, when the sun passed from one hemisphere to the other, both the solar- and lunar-diurnal variations depending on the position of the sun.


It has long been known that the diurnal variation of the magnetic needle is in an opposite direction in the southern, to what it is in the northern hemisphere; and it was therefore proposed as a pro­blem by Arago, Humboldt and others, to determine whether there exists any intermediate line of stations on the earth where those diurnal variations disappear. The results recorded in the present paper are founded on observations made at St. Helena during the five consecutive years, from 1841 to 1845 inclusive; and also on similar observations made at Singapore, in the years 1841 and 1842; and show that at these stations, which are intermediate between the northern and southern magnetic hemispheres, the diurnal variations still take place; but those peculiar to each hemisphere prevail at opposite seasons of the year, apparently in accordance with the position of the sun with relation to the earth’s equator.


1872 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-757
Author(s):  
J. A. Broun

1. The lunar diurnal variation of magnetic declination as first discovered by Kreil, depended on too few observations to be free from the errors introduced by irregular disturbing causes. The independent discovery of the lunar action on the magnetic needle made afterwards by myself, was liable to the same criticism; but the agreement of the results obtained, both for the magnetic declination and the horizontal force, was sufficiently great to give a considerable value to the conclusion, that the magnetic needle obeys a diurnal law, depending on the moon's hour angle, both as to its direction and the force with which it is directed. This conclusion was farther confirmed in the discussion first made by myself, for the lunar diurnal variation of the vertical magnetic force, which gave, within an hour, the same epochs of maxima and minima as those obtained previously by me for the horizontal component.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Muthulakshmi A

We could see the rise and set of the planets starting with the Sun. Tamil had many thoughts and opinions on the rise and set of those planets. They had calculated not only Sun’s orbit but also various other stars, planets and their orbital relations as well. Through Sangam literature, one could know that there were experts in calculating the celestial bodies. Subbu Reddiyar explains the poem from  ‘puRanaanuuRu’  that there were people who had mastered for years and could tell the everyday measures of ‘the law of the sun and its movement, the orbit surrounding by its movement, the direction of the wind and the sky without an axile’ (puRam 30). Thus, it could be understood that the ancient Tamils were capable of measuring not only the sky but also the movements of Sun and the celestial bodies. That is how he poem mention details about the moon, stars and the movement of the Sun.


1867 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-690
Author(s):  
John Allan Broun

The first observations of the diurnal variation of magnetic declination, made near the equator, seem to have been those of Mr Macdonald, who observed in 1794–95 at Fort Marlborough, Sumatra, 3° 46′ S., and at St Helena. Two conclusions seem to have been deduced from these observations—1st, That near the equator the range of the diurnal variation was much smaller than in Europe; 2d, That the needle moved in opposite directions south of the equator and in Europe. This latter conclusion was made use of by M. Arago, in his report made in 1821, on the “Voyage de l'Uranie,” as the base of a hypothesis that there must be a line betwixt the two hemispheres on which the magnetic needle moves neither east nor west—that is, remains stationary. M. de Freycinet's observations showed that this line was not the terrestrial equator, and M. Arago supposed it must be the magnetic equator.


1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 314-315

In a communication made to the Royal Society in the last Session, “On the Lunar-diurnal Magnetic Variation at Toronto,” the author had stated that he could discover no trace of the lunar influence of the decennial inequality which constitutes so marked a feature in the solar magnetic variations. He has since read, in a memoir communicated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna, entitled “On the Influence of the Moon on the horizontal component of the Mag­netic Force,” that M. Kreil is of opinion that the observations of different years at Milan and Prague, when combined, would rather favour the contrary inference, viz. that the decennial inequality exists in the lunar as well as in the solar variations.


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