Abstract
The 21 September 1922 total eclipse of the Sun offered the next opportunity to obtain the measurements of the deflection of starlight that could confirm Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and the results obtained during the 1919 eclipse. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, mounted an expedition to Christmas Island, 350km off the coast of Java, whose work programme also included photographic photometry of southern stars. There they were joined in a spirit of 'friendly rivalry' by a Dutch-German group also planning similar deflection measurements. However, early on in the assembly of their telescope the British astronomers realised that the weather was going to cause trouble and that the meteorological records from the island were of limited value for astronomical purposes.
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