Some eclipses of the Moon are mentioned in historical accounts in connection with a significant event. Lunar eclipses are somewhat rare events, although not as rare as solar eclipses, because unlike solar eclipses they can be viewed from anywhere on the dark side of the Earth. Throughout history lunar eclipses have been held to be responsible for lost battles, and have helped make possible extraordinary escapes.
The first mention of a lunar eclipse was found in the Chinese book Zhou-Shu, a book of the Zhou dynasty. The book was discovered in 280 AD, in a tomb of a king or noblemen. The eclipse mentioned in this book took place many centuries before that time. Professor S.M. Russell believes that the eclipse described in the book may refer to the event that happened on 29 January 1137 BC (-1136). [1] [2] [3]
When eclipses were not well understood, they were sometimes associated with unnatural forces. Witches from the Greek region of Thessaly claimed the ability to extinguish the Moon's light and draw it down from the sky. In his famous comedy The Clouds (419 BC), Aristophanes describes the eclipse that took place two years prior to that. [4]
the moon deserted her course and the sun at once veiled his beam threatening, no longer to give you light, if Cleon became general... [5] [6]
This eclipse happened during the Second Battle of Syracuse. Just as the Athenians were preparing to sail home, there was a lunar eclipse, and Nicias, described by Thucydides as a particularly superstitious man, asked the priests what he should do. The priests suggested the Athenians wait for another 27 days, and Nicias agreed. The Syracusans took advantage of this, and 76 of their ships attacked 86 Athenian ships in the harbor. The Athenians were defeated and Eurymedon was killed. Many of the ships were pushed up on to the shore, where Gylippus was waiting. He killed some of the crews and captured 18 beached ships, but a force of Athenians and Etruscans forced Gylippus back. [4] Plutarch described this eclipse and the superstitious response:
And when all were in readiness, and none of the enemy had observed them, not expecting such a thing, the moon was eclipsed in the night, to the great fright of Nicias and others, who, for want of experience, or out of superstition, felt alarm at such appearances. [7]
This partial lunar eclipse was seen during the Fall of Constantinople (the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire), during the siege that lasted from Thursday, 5 April 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May 1453), after which the city fell to the Ottomans. The lunar eclipse was considered to be fulfilling a prophecy for the city's demise. It is said a blood moon took place during the eclipse.
On 30 June 1503, Christopher Columbus beached his two last caravels and was stranded in Jamaica. The indigenous people of the island welcomed Columbus and his crew and fed them, but Columbus' sailors cheated and stole from the natives. After six months, the natives halted the food supply. [8]
Columbus had on board an almanac authored by Regiomontanus of astronomical tables covering the years 1475–1506; upon consulting the book, he noticed the date and the time of an upcoming lunar eclipse. He was able to use this information to his advantage. He requested a meeting for that day with the Cacique, and told him that his god was angry with the local people's treatment of Columbus and his men. Columbus said his god would provide a clear sign of his displeasure by making the rising full moon appear "inflamed with wrath".
The lunar eclipse and the red Moon appeared on schedule, and the indigenous people were impressed and frightened. The son of Columbus, Ferdinand, wrote that the people:
with great howling and lamentation came running from every direction to the ships laden with provisions, praying to the Admiral to intercede with his god on their behalf...
Columbus timed the eclipse with his hourglass, and shortly before the totality ended after 48 minutes, he told the frightened indigenous people that they were going to be forgiven. [8] When the Moon started to reappear from the shadow of the Earth, he told them that his god had pardoned them. [9]
In 1885, H. Rider Haggard used an altered version of the real story of the rescue of Columbus in his novel, King Solomon's Mines . In that novel, Allan Quatermain and his fellow Englishmen use their foreknowledge of a solar eclipse to claim that they will black out the Sun as proof of their powers, and save captive girls from an unjust death sentence.
In 1889, Mark Twain used a similar plot device in his novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court . In that novel, Hank Morgan, a 19th-century resident of Hartford, Connecticut, after a blow to the head, awakens to find himself inexplicably transported back in time to early medieval England at the time of the legendary King Arthur. When Morgan is about to be burned at the stake, he pretends to conjure a solar eclipse that he knew was about to happen; this prediction saves Morgan's life. [9]
Another novel that used a solar-eclipse scene modeled after Columbus' lunar eclipse was Bolesław Prus' 1895 historical novel, Pharaoh . [10]
A similar plot also features in The Adventures of Tintin 1949 comic Prisoners of the Sun .
The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–17. Five men were stranded not far away from Cape Evans. There was sea ice between them and the relative safety of the hut on Cape Evans. On 8 May two of the men, Aeneas Mackintosh and Victor Hayward, decided to make an attempt to reach the hut. Soon after they set out a blizzard hit. When the weather cleared up, the remaining men tried to look for them, but realized that the ice was far too thin to cross, and that their friends had been lost. Now they knew that they should wait for a thicker ice and for the full moon to attempt the crossing. Having the full moon was essential, because during polar night the Moon is the only source of natural light other than the extremely dim light of the stars.
The weather did not cooperate during the full moon of June, but on 15 July, everything seemed to be just right: calm weather, thick ice, clear skies and a full moon. The men started their journey in the morning. When the Moon rose, however, the men were surprised to find it was about to be eclipsed. Ernest Wild wrote later:
"I thought we were going to be left in darkness but a very little bit of the rim remained to light us..."
Although the eclipse continued for a few hours, the men were fortunate because it was only a partial eclipse. They reached Cape Evans later on the same day. [11]
Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, Anaxagoras came to Athens. In later life he was charged with impiety and went into exile in Lampsacus.
The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided until the later intervention of the Persian Empire in support of Sparta. Led by Lysander, the Spartan fleet finally defeated Athens which began a period of Spartan hegemony over Greece.
Alcibiades was an Athenian statesman and general. The last of the Alcmaeonidae, he played a major role in the second half of the Peloponnesian War as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician, but subsequently fell from prominence.
Nicias was an Athenian politician and general during the period of the Peloponnesian War. Nicias was a member of the Athenian aristocracy and had inherited a large fortune from his father, which was invested in the silver mines around Attica's Mt. Laurium. Following the death of Pericles in 429 BC, he became the principal rival of Cleon and the democrats in the struggle for the political leadership of the Athenian state. He was a moderate in his political views and opposed the aggressive imperialism of the democrats. His principal aim was to conclude a peace with Sparta as soon as it could be obtained on terms favourable to Athens.
The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place from 415–413 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Athens on one side and Sparta, Syracuse and Corinth on the other. The expedition ended in a devastating defeat for the Athenian forces, severely impacting Athens.
Demosthenes, son of Alcisthenes, was an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War.
Lamachus was an Athenian strategos or general in the Peloponnesian War. He commanded as early as 435 BCE, and was prominent by the mid 420s. Aristophanes caricatured him in The Acharnians and subsequently honoured his memory in The Frogs. He was one of the three generals placed in command of the Sicilian Expedition.
A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Sunday, November 23 and Monday, November 24, 2003, with a magnitude of 1.0379. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring only about 25 minutes before perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. Perigee did occur just past the greatest point of this eclipse.
Hermocrates was an ancient Syracusan general from Greek Sicily during the Athenians' Sicilian Expedition in the midst of the Peloponnesian War. He is also remembered as a character in the Timaeus and Critias dialogues of Plato.
A total lunar eclipse took place on 4 April 2015. It is the former of two total lunar eclipses in 2015, and the third in a tetrad. Other eclipses in the tetrad are those of 15 April 2014, 8 October 2014, and 28 September 2015.
A penumbral lunar eclipse took place at the Moon's ascending of the orbit on Sunday, June 5, 1955, with a penumbral eclipse magnitude of 0.62181 (62.181%). A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place when the Moon moves through the faint, outer part of Earth's shadow, the penumbra. This type of eclipse is not as dramatic as other types of lunar eclipses and is often mistaken for a regular Full Moon. The Moon shines because its surface reflects the Sun's rays. A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and blocks some or all of the Sun's light from reaching the Moon. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and the Moon are imperfectly aligned. When this happens, the Earth blocks some of the Sun's light from directly reaching the Moon's surface and covers all or part of the Moon with the outer part of its shadow, also known as the penumbra. Since the penumbra is much fainter than the dark core of the Earth's shadow, the umbra, a penumbral eclipse of the Moon is often difficult to tell apart from a normal Full Moon. Occurring only 0.5 days after apogee, the moon's apparent diameter was 6.5% smaller than average.
A total penumbral lunar eclipse is a lunar eclipse that occurs when the Moon becomes completely immersed in the penumbral cone of the Earth without touching the umbra.
An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Tuesday, May 10, 1994, with a magnitude of 0.9431. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1.6 days after apogee, the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Saturday, December 4, 2021, with a magnitude of 1.0367. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's and the apparent path of the Sun and Moon intersect, blocking all direct sunlight and turning daylight into darkness; the Sun appears to be black with a halo around it. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring only about 2.5 hours before perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Saturday, July 20 and Sunday, July 21, 1963, with a magnitude of 1.0224. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is at least the same size as the Sun's or larger, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with a partial solar eclipse visible over the surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 4.1 days after perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29, 1911, with a magnitude of 1.0562. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1.4 days before perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Friday, August 10, 1934, with a magnitude of 0.9436. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring only 1.4 days after apogee, the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
A total lunar eclipse occurred on 1 March 1504, visible at sunset for the Americas, and later over night over Europe and Africa, and near sunrise over Asia.
A partial lunar eclipse took place on Saturday, July 15, 1916. The moon was strikingly shadowed in this deep partial eclipse which lasted 2 hours and 53 minutes, with 79% of the moon in darkness at maximum.
