This paper will describe measurements of sound pressures on the surface of a prolate spheroid whose length to diameter ratio is 6.9. The sound source was positioned a distance from the illuminated pole equal to the length of the body; irradiation was axisymmetric. Data at surface locations along the axis of the body was collected for acoustic wavelengths λ ranging from 1/150 to 1/38 of the interfocal distanced. A condenser microphone equipped with a long probe tube was used to avoid extraneous scattering from the sensor. Sound pressure levels, expressed relative to those measured on the illuminated pole, showed the existence of expected creeping‐wave interference patterns near the antipode and an illuminated spot on the pole. The measured levels on that pole are shown to decrease roughly as the reciprocal of frequency; they are 13 dB less than those at the illuminated pole ford/λ = 38. In the shadow zone the measurements are shown to be well approximated by Keller's deo‐metric theory of diffraction. Deviations from the theory on the order of 3 dB are observed at high frequencies and at coordinates off the antipode.