Teams In Position For Lae Eclipse

Australia is not sending a team to NG but other nations are well represented at the eclipse-viewing that will take place (weather permitting) in Lae, in early February.

TEN Japanese scientists and four technicians arrived in Lae, New Guinea, on December 28, in the Kagoshima University fishing training ship Kagoshima Maru to prepare to study the complete eclipse of the sun on February 5.

They brought with them more than 100 tons of scientific equipment, building materials and special foodstuffs. * . , , , , t, r The party is headed by Professor Yoshio Kato, who said three observation stations would be erected at Lae during the next few weeks as Lae is the best part of the world to observe this coming eclipse.

A party of eight scientists from American observatories were expected in Lae in early January.

The American party is being led by Dr. Richard Dunn. It has one Australian member, Mr. John Jeffries, formerly of the CSIRO, now with the National Bureau of Standards at Boulder Colorado.

Lae has been "impressed by the speed with which the Japanese party

do things. Reports our Lae corre spondent: “One hour the ship was off the beach, the next, the stores were unloaded and they were playing foot ball. By afternoon all their huts were erected.

“They have brought with them the modern bicycles, their own lolly w ater and everything they will need -including sand and gravel which the Customs Department made them dump in case it carried some sort of wog or t we don’t happen to have jj ere » With all this activity from overseas scientists, all there is now left to do j s to hope Lae’s very chancy weather plays ball, and remains clear for the occasion. Lae has a very high rainfall, and although February is in the official ‘ dry season that fact does not necessarily mean very much. (Average rainfall for Lae is 184 in. a year, and its wet season, because of the configuration of the coast and the mountains behind, is the reverse to the usual run of things in the tropical South Pacific).