Eclipse

“ A total eclipse of the Sun is a most beautiful and imposing phenomenon. At the predicted time the perfectly round disk of the Sun becomes slightly indented at its western limb by the yet invisible Moon. ”

“ Here is a famous astrologer from Arabia, who studies the skies, who says that this darkness was caused by an eclipse of the sun! The dark cloud was but the smoke of the sacrifices, while the earthquake was but a natural and usual occurrence!"
"Stay, sir priest," answered Pilate; "we at Rome, though called barbarians by you polished Jews, have some scholarship in astrology. We know well that an eclipse of the sun can take place only when the moon is new! It is to-day, on this eve of the high-day, at its full, and will to-night rise nearly opposite the sun! ”

“ Give wine for its hot veins, fame for its throne, and laughter for its lips,
All ends in one eclipse.
Sunshine or snows.
We gain a grave, and afterwards—God knows.
Bemoan beside your fire your own particular fate, that evil wind
That blows for you no mercy, think till the wearied mind
Doth ease itself in tears, or reason from her high throne slips,
So ends life in eclipse,
However the wind blows,
We gain a grave, and afterwards—God knows. ”

“ We left the house, and passed beyond the grounds into the broad and grassy street which lay between the gates and the lake. Here there were no overhanging branches to obstruct the view; the heavens, the wooded mountains, and the limpid sheet of water before us, were all distinctly seen. As the hour for the eclipse drew near, our eagerness and excitement increased to an almost boyish impatience. The elders of the party were discussing the details of some previous eclipse: leaving them to revive their recollections, I strolled away, glass in hand, through the principal streets of the village. ”

“ No cause is supposed for eclipses, unless it be the magic of some weather-doctor; an eclipse is a wonder, a portent, bringing an appalling sense of danger, which finds expression in shouting, blowing conchs, and beating house roofs, with no very distinct purpose of driving the fearful thing away. ”

“ The shadow which we see creeping over the Moon during an eclipse is, as we know, the shadow cast by the Earth. If we notice it attentively we shall see that its outline is curved, and that it is in fact a complete segment of a circle. ”

“ An eclipse had suddenly inumbrated the moon, and as the black shadow was perceived stealing rapidly onwards, and casting a mysterious gloom over the face of nature, late so bright, the exulting Christians were seized with the direst consternation. ”

“ I do, Sir.
Tutor. The darkness on the disc of the moon at the time of an eclipse is the shadow of the earth, which in all situations is circular; the earth, therefore, which casts the shadow, must be a globe. ”

“ The diminished light, when the eclipse was complete, was just sufficient for us to distinguish the various groups of people, and contributed in no small degree to render the scene more imposing. If a European, a stranger to Africa, had been placed on a sudden in the midst of the terror-struck people, he would have imagined himself to be among a legion of demons, holding a revel over a fallen spirit. ”

“ The primary meaning of the word “Eclipse” (ἔκλειψις) is a forsaking, quitting, or disappearance. Hence the covering over of something by something else, or the immersion of something in something; and these apparently crude definitions will be found on investigation to represent precisely the facts of the case.
Inasmuch as the Earth and the Moon are for our present purpose practically “solid bodies,” each must cast a shadow into space as the result of being illuminated by the Sun, regarded as a source of light. ”

“ Indeed, every carefully watched total eclipse of the sun stimulates as well as appeases curiosity, and leaves a legacy of outstanding doubt, continually, as time and inquiry go on, removed, but continually replaced. ”

“ Often they sheltered themselves from that tropical sun beneath the trees. Think of living on a world where from the vertical heat of the hottest noon of the equator to the twilight of the poles is a walk of only fifty paces! What atmosphere they had, to temper and diffuse those rays, I could not then conjecture.
I knew that at half-past ten they would pass into the inevitable eclipse which struck them every night at this period of their orbit, and must, I thought, be a luxury to them, as recalling old memories of night when they were on this world. ”

“ Every living creature was soon rejoicing again in the blessed restoration of light after that frightful moment of a night at noon-day.
Men who witness any extraordinary spectacle together, are apt, in after-times, to find a pleasure in conversing on its impressions. But I do not remember to have ever heard a single being freely communicative on the subject of his individual feelings at the most solemn moment of the eclipse. ”

“ At the limiting point the rim of the moon merely grazes that of the sun at sunrise, so that we may say that the eclipse both begins and ends at that time. Of course the points we have described are also found at the ending of the eclipse. There is a certain moment at which the shadow-axis leaves the earth at a certain point, and a series of moments when, the elements of the penumbral cone being tangent to the earth’s surface, the eclipse is ending at sunset. Three cases may arise in studying the passage of the outlines of the shadow over the earth. ”

“ Remember that these protuberances were not dazzling lights, but could be contemplated with the greatest comfort; and the eye is so fastidious, that in running round the limb of the moon, it immediately detects the sudden break in the circumference. But I have a theory, and it is dangerous to trust the eye of a man with a theory, without good support. Directly after the eclipse, some of those outside joined us, and the conversation was upon the extraordinary shooting-out of the prominence, which they were all describing. ”

“ Having now learned various particulars respecting the earth, the sun, and the moon, you are prepared to understand the explanation of solar and lunar eclipses, which have in all ages excited a high degree of interest. Indeed, what is more admirable, than that astronomers should be able to tell us, years beforehand, the exact instant of the commencement and termination of an eclipse, and describe all the attendant circumstances with the greatest fidelity. ”

“ A partial eclipse of the Sun results from the visible body of the Sun being in part concealed from us by the solid body of the Moon, and so in a total eclipse there is total concealment of the one object by the other. ”

“ Of recent commentators Monro notes that we do not hear of any actual darkness that day, and urges that the darkness or night is that of death, to which I should reply, Why should we be told of the darkness again, and why should not an eclipse be sent as a portent of death? Merry regards the reference to an eclipse as not impossible, but he thinks the blotting out of the Sun is merely the climax of the vision. ”

“ As the eclipse approaches, the clouds gradually darken, the rays of the sun are no longer able to penetrate them through and through, and drench them with living light as before, but they become darker than the sky against which they are seen. The air becomes sensibly colder, the clouds still darker, and the whole atmosphere murkier. ”

“ I shall only say that I have passed a varied and eventful life, that it has been my fortune to see earth, heavens, ocean, and man in most of their aspects; but never have I beheld any spectacle which so plainly manifested the majesty of the Creator, or so forcibly taught the lesson of humility to man as a total eclipse of the sun. ”

“ A total eclipse of the sun or moon, is when their whole bodies are obscured; and a partial one, is when part only of their bodies is darkened: again, a central eclipse is when it is not only total, but the eclipsed body passes through the centre of the shadow.
As total solar eclipses are by no means common, we shall give an interesting description of one, by Dr. Stukeley, sent to his friend, the celebrated Dr. Edmund Halley. ”

“ An Eclipse means a temporary obscuration of the Sun or moon, or a part of either, from our sight. When the Sun or moon is wholly hid from our sight, the eclipse is called total, and when only a part is obscured, it is called partial. ”

“ The conditions necessary [Pg 53] for the occurrence of an eclipse will be more fully considered in the next chapter. For the present it will be sufficient to observe that by the movement of the moon it may so happen that the moon completely hides the sun, and thus for certain parts of the earth produces what we call a total eclipse. The few minutes during which a total eclipse lasts are of much interest to the astronomer. Darkness reigns over the landscape, and in that darkness rare and beautiful sights are witnessed.
Fig. 19.—Prominences seen in Total Eclipse. ”

“ O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, 80 Irrecoverably dark, total Eclipse Without all hope of day! ”

“ immense France has her freaks of pettiness. That is all.
To this there is nothing to say. Peoples, like planets, possess the right to an eclipse. And all is well, provided that the light returns and that the eclipse does not degenerate into night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is identical with the persistence of the I.
Let us state these facts calmly. ”

“ During this year, in Lent, on the 13th of the Calends of April, at the 9th hour of the 4th day of the week, there was an eclipse, throughout England, as I have heard. With us, indeed, and with all our neighbours, the obscuration of the Sun also was so remarkable, that persons sitting at table, as it then happened almost everywhere, for it was Lent, at first feared that Chaos was come again: afterwards, learning the cause, they went out and beheld the stars around the Sun. ”

“ XXIII. Aspects between the Moon and stars give the native much activity; and, if the stars be in power, they indicate an efficient, but if weak an inert, excitation to action.
XXIV. An eclipse of the luminaries, if in the angles of the nativity, or of an annual revolution, is noxious; and the effects take place according to the space between the ascendant and the place of eclipse. And as, in a solar eclipse, a year is reckoned for an hour, so likewise, in a lunar eclipse, a month is reckoned for an hour. ”

“ If the darkness of eclipses is not so profound, and does not affect the atmosphere so forcibly, let us not be surprised; the bodies which cause respectively night and eclipse are similar in nature, but unequal in size. ”

“ One of the photograms of the partial eclipse that we took before totality, shews the cusps and edge of the moon to be double, giving the appearance of a band surrounding the moon. This is caused by the reflection of the moon from the second or underside of the [12] glass, which happens when the sun is not in the centre of the field; and by holding the negative of a partial eclipse so that the light will fall obliquely on it, you will see a dark band surrounding the moon’s limb, from the same cause. ”

“ And the eclipse will be greater and greater and, consequently, visible in more regions of the earth, the more deeply the two pointers, indicating the distance of the sun from its apogee, are hidden in the center of the segments. ”