The Story of Eclipses

The present Volume is intended as a sequel to my two former volumes in the Newnes Series of "Useful Stories," entitled respectively the "Story of the Solar System," and the "Story of the Stars." It has been written not only as a necessary complement, so to speak, to those works, but because public attention is already being directed to the forthcoming total eclipse of the Sun on May 28, 1900. This eclipse, though only visible as a partial one in England, will be total no further off than Portugal and Spain. Considering also that the line of totality will pass across a large tract of country forming part of the United States, it may be inferred that there will be an enormous number of English-speaking spectators of the phenomenon. It is for these in general that this little book has been written. For the guidance of those who may be expected to visit Portugal or Spain, a temporary Appendix has been prepared, giving a large amount of information showing how those countries can be best reached, whether by sea or overland, from the shores of England.

If anyone is inclined to doubt whether an eclipse expedition is likely to provide non-astronomical tourists with incidents of travel, pleasant, profitable, and even amusing, perhaps the doubt will be removed by a perusal of the accounts of Sir F. Galton's trip to Spain in 1860 (Vacation Tourists in 1860, p. 422), or of Professor Tyndall's trip to Algeria in 1870 (Hours of Exercise in the Alps, p. 429), or of Professor Langley's Adventures on Pike's Peak in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, U.S., in 1878 (Washington Observations, 1876, Appendix III. p. 203); or of some of the many Magazine and other narratives of the Norway eclipse of 1896 and the Indian eclipse of 1898.

Subject to these special points no further prefatory explanation seems needed, the general style of the contents being, mutatis mutandis, identical with the contents of the Volumes which have gone before.

I have to thank my friend, Dr. A. M. W. Downing, the Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac, for kindly verifying the calculations in chapters II. and III.

G. F. C. NORTHFIELD GRANGE, EASTBOURNE, 1899.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION 9

II. GENERAL IDEAS 11

III. THE SAROS AND THE PERIODICITY OF ECLIPSES 18

IV. MISCELLANEOUS THEORETICAL MATTERS CONNECTED WITH ECLIPSES OF THE SUN (CHIEFLY) 34

V. WHAT IS OBSERVED DURING THE EARLIER STAGES OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 40 The Moon's Shadow and the Darkness it causes 41 Shadow Bands 46 The Approach of Totality 49 The Darkness of Totality 53 Meteorological and other effects 54

VI. WHAT IS OBSERVED DURING THE TOTAL PHASE OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 56 Baily's Beads 57 The Corona 62

VII. WHAT IS OBSERVED AFTER THE TOTAL PHASE OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN IS AT AN END 73

VIII. ECLIPSES OF THE SUN MENTIONED IN HISTORY--CHINESE 75

IX. ARE ECLIPSES ALLUDED TO IN THE BIBLE 86

X. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--CLASSICAL 107

XI. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 128

XII. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN 145

XIII. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--NINETEENTH CENTURY 162

XIV. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH AS APPLIED TO ECLIPSES OF THE SUN 179

XV. ECLIPSES OF THE MOON--GENERAL PRINCIPLES 186

XVI. ECLIPSES OF THE MOON MENTIONED IN HISTORY 197

XVII. CATALOGUES OF ECLIPSES: AND THEIR CALCULATION 218

XVIII. STRANGE ECLIPSE CUSTOMS 224

XIX. ECLIPSES IN SHAKESPEARE AND THE POETS 229