Quotations About Eclipses

"At the same time, AD 1239 on the third day from the beginning of the month of June, a wonderful and terrible eclipse of the Sun occurred, for the entire Sun was obscured, and the whole of the clear sky was in darkness. Also stars appeared in the sky as if during the night, and a certain greater star shone beside the Sun on the western side. And such great fear overtook everyone, that just like madmen they ran about to and fro shrieking, thinking that the end of the world had come. However, it was a Friday, the 30th day of the (lunar) month. And although the same defection of the Sun appeared throughout the whole of Europe, it was not however spoken of in Asia and Africa."

Refers to a total solar eclipse in Split, Croatia of 3 June 1239.
From: Thomae Historia Pontificum Salonitanorum et Spalatinorum.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 401.

"The King (James the Conqueror) entered the city of Montpellier on Thursday the 2nd of June of the year 1239; and on the next day, Friday, between midday and the ninth hour, the King writes that the Sun was eclipsed in a way people did not remember ever having seen before, because it was entirely covered by the Moon and the day grew so dark that one could see stars in the sky."

Refers to a total solar eclipse in Montpellier, France, of 3 June 1239.
From: Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragon.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 400.

"In this same year, namely 1241 from the Incarnation, on the 6th day from the beginning of October, on Sunday, the Sun was again eclipsed and all the air was darkened. There was gresat terror among everyone, just as in that eclipse which happened three years previously, as we have attested above."

Refers to a solar eclipse in Split of 6 October 1241.
From: Thomae Historia Pontificum Salonitanorum et Spalatinorum.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 401.

"At that time the Moon obscured the Sun when it was in the 4th part (degree) of Gemini, at the 3rd hour before midday on the 25th day of May in the year 6775 (AD 1267). It was a total eclipse of about 12 digits or points. Also, such darkness arose over the Earth at the time of mid-eclipse that many stars appeared. No doubt this portended the very great and destructive calamities which were soon to be vented on the Romans by the Turks."

Refers to a solar eclipse in Constantinople of 25 May 1267.
From: Nicephori Gregorae Byzantinae Historiae.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 404.

"Te-yu reign period, 1st year, month VI, day keng-tzu, the first day of the month. The Sun was eclipsed; it was total. The sky and Earth were in darkness. People could not be distinguished within a foot. The chickens and ducks returned to roost. (It lasted) from the hour szu (9-11 h) to the hour wu (11-13 h); then it regained its brightness."

"The Sun was eclipsed; it was total. Stars were seen. The chickens and ducks all returned to roost. In the following year the Sung dynasty was extinguished."

Refers to a total solar eclipse of 25 June 1275.
From: Sung-shih.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pages 257 and 258.

"Chiih-yuan reign-period, 29th year, first month, day chia-wu. The sun was eclipsed. A darkness invaded the Sun, which was not totally covered. It was like a golden ring. There were vapours like golden earrings on the left and right and a vapour like a halo completely surrounding it."

Refers to an annular eclipse of 21 January 1292. The halo is caused by ice crystals in the Earth's atmosphere.
From: Yuan-shih .
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 258.

"On the last day of January at the 8th hour of the day at Avignon there was an eclipse of the Sun, and it was eclipsed in an extraordinary manner, and was notably sparkling. There appeared as if at nightfall a single star, a second was the opinion of the crowd. Then a remarkable semicircle was seen and it lasted until past the night hour." .

Refers to a total solar eclipse of 31 January 1310.
From: Ptolomaei Lucensis Hist. eccles..
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 382.

"Never, perhaps, were preparations for battle made under conditions so truly awful. On that very day the Sun suffered a partial eclipse; birds in clouds, the precursors of a storm, flew screaming over the two armies, and the rain fell in torrents, accompanied by incessant thunder and lightning."

Lingard History of England
Refers to the Battle of Cre”y, 1346. However, there was no eclipse at that date.

" In this year on 17 September that novelty appeared. The Sun became dark on a Wednesday at about the third hour and it lasted for the space of two hours. Above the Sun and Moon, which were joined together - that is, the Moon was covering the Sun - there appeared a very large star with fiery rays like a torch . . . Many people viewed the rays of the small Sun by reflection in a mirror or in clear water. And the rays of the Sun were so small and so dark, on account of the Moon covering the Sun, that there did not remain unobscured as much as 3 fingers of the Sun. . . Everyone appeared deathly pale."

Refers to a total solar eclipse in Perugia, Italy, of 17 September 1354.
From: Memorie di Perugia dall'anno 1351 al 1438
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 421.

" Chih-cheng reign period, 21st year, 4th month, day hsin-szu, the first day of the month. As the Sun was about to sink (i.e. set) suddenly it lost its light. It took the shape of a plantain leaf. The sky was as dark as night and the stars were shining brightly. For a short time (literally: for the duration of a meal)., the sky became bright again. Then in a short time (the light) disappeared once more."

Refers to a total solar eclipse of 5 May 1361.
From: Sung-chiang Fu-chih (History of the town of Sung-chiang, south-west of Shanghai).
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 259.

"On February 12 at about the 21st or 22nd hour, the Sun was completely obscured and in front of the Sun was placed a black circle like a little wheel. It became as dark as night and the sky revealed the stars. The birds went to roost as they usually do at night. Everyone was feeling ill at ease as a result of this event. It began half an hour before the Sun was covered over. It gradually lost its light even to the hour stated above. . ."

Refers to a total solar eclipse in Perugia, Italy, of 12 February 1431.
From: Antonio dei Veghi, Diario dall'anno 1423 al 1491.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 408.

"In (the month of) Jumada al-Ukhra, the astrologers warned that the Sun would be eclipsed, and in Cairo there were callings to the people that they should pray and do good deeds. However, the eclipse did not occur and those who gave the warnings were denounced. Then news arrived from al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) of the occurrence of an eclipse there covering all of the Sun's body except one-eight of it. That was after midday on the 28th of the month."

From: Al-Maqrizi, al-Saluk fi Ma'rifat Duwal al-Muluk.

" In (the month of) Jumada al-Ula it was known that the calendar experts agreed that the Sun was to be eclipsed on the 28th of the month after the Zawal (i.e. after the Sun had crossed the meridian). The Sultan and the people were prepared for it and were watching the Sun until it set but nothing of it had changed at all."

From: Al-'Asqalani, INBA' AL-Ghumr bi 'Bna' al-'Umr.

These two quotations refer to total solar eclipse, expected in Cairo, but visible in Spain, of 12 February 1431.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 446.

"On Wednesday the 28th of Shawwal, the Sun was eclipsed by about two-thirds in the sign of Cancer more than one hour after the afternoon prayer. The eclipse cleared at sunset. During the eclipse there was darkness and some stars appeared. . . . On Friday night the 14th of Dhu I-Qu'da, most of the Moon was eclipsed. It rose eclipsed from the eastern horizon. The eclipse cleared in the time of the nightfall prayer. This is a rarity - the occurrence of a lunar eclipse 15 days after a solar eclipse."

The solar eclipse occurred on 17 June 1433, and the lunar eclipse on 3 July 1433. Such pairs of eclipses are not frequent.
From: al-Maqrizi, Islamic.
Quoted in Encyclopedia Britannica CD 98.

"On the 28th of (the month of) Shawwal, the Sun was eclipsed after the 'Asr (Afternoon) Prayer and continued until the time of sunset. It cleared up after the conclusion of the eclipse prayer, which I led in the Great Mosque. Then the Sun set and we prayed the Maghrib (Sunset) Prayer in the mosque. When the eclipse prayer was concluded, I sent a witness to ascend the minaret of the mosque to see if the Sun had cleared. He returned, saying that it had cleared completely."

Refers to an almost total solar eclipse at Aleppo of 17 June 1433.
From: Al-'Asqalani, Inba' al-Ghumr bi 'Bna al-'Umr.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 446.

"In the year of salvation 1485, in the month of January, according to the ancient custom, the consuls of Augsburg . . . were elected. On the 16th day of March, at the 3rd hour, during meal-time, the Sun was totally eclipsed. This produced such horrid darkness on our horizon for the space of half an hour that stars appeared in the sky. Crazed birds fell from the sky and bleating flocks and fearful herds of oxen unexpectedly began to return from their pastures to their stables."

Refers to a total solar eclipse in Augsburg, Germany, of 16 March 1485.
From: Achilli Pirmini Gassari, Annales Augustburgenses.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 408.

"Trick of the Moon's eclipse

When, in February 1504, the Indians refused to suply any more food to the fifty-odd Spaniards marooned in the small bay of Santa Gloria in Jamaica, Columbus conceived of a ploy to trick the Indian caciques. He had aboard the Capitana a copy of Johannes M­ller's Calendarium published in Nuremberg about 1474. It contained predictions of lunar eclipses for many years ahead. It revealed that a full eclipse was due on 29 February 1504 - leap year.

On this day Columbus entertained all the local caciques abroad the Capitana. He addressed them all. He explained that the Spaniards were Christians, that they believed in one God who lived in the Heavens, rewarded the good and punished the bad. His God, he warned them, was about to punish them with pestilence and famine if they did not supply food to the Spaniards.

As a mark of His intent He would display a sign in the sky - a blacking-out of the moon. 'Some feared and other mocked', Thacher reports, then right on cue a dark shadow began to pass over the face of the moon. Abject fear gripped the Indians. They begged Columbus to intercede on their behalf. He retired to his cabin for one hour and fifty minutes, then returned to the caciques. God, he informed them, was prepared to withdraw the threat of punishment so long as they behaved themselves and resumed supplies of food and other necessities to the Christians, and to pardon them, in token of which he would withdraw the shadow of the moon. They all agreed.

As the eclipse cleared the Indians marvelled. 'From that time forward, they always took care to provide what [the Spaniards] had need of.'"

Refers to a lunar eclipse of 29 February 1504.
From: David A Thomas, Christopher Columbus: Master of the Atlantic, Andr» Deutsch Limited, London (1991), page 194. Reprinted with permission of the author.
For a further quotation about this incident see A World Too Vast by Alexander McKee (Souvenir Press, London, 1990).

"At the hour of wu (i.e. between 11 and 13 h) the sun was eclipsed. The sky and Earth became dark in the daytime. All the birds flew about in alarm. The domestic animals went into the forest. At the hour of yu (17-19 h) the light came back."
From: Fu-ning Chou-chih (local history of Fu-ning county).

"At the hour of wu suddenly the Sun was eclipsed; it was total. Stars were seen and it was dark. Objects could not be discerned at arm's length. The domestic animals were alarmed and people were terrified. After one (double-) hour it became light."
From: Chiang-hsi (Jiangsi) province.

Both of these quotations refer to a total solar eclipse of 20 August 1514.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 261.

"There is a tradition that some persons in the north lost their way in the time of this eclipse, and perished in the snow."

Refers to the total solar eclipse of 25 February 1598.
From: Maclaurin, Philosophical Transactions, vol xi, p193, 1737.
Quoted in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.

"And now the house of York, thrust from the crown
By shameful murder of a guiltless king
And lofty proud encroaching tyranny,
Burns with revenging fire; whose hopeful colours
Advance our half-faced sun, striving to shine,
Under the which is writ 'Invitis nubibus.'
The commons here in Kent are up in arms:
And, to conclude, reproach and beggary
Is crept into the palace of our king.
And all by thee. Away! convey him hence."

William Shakespeare King Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 1 (Late 1580s).

"Katherina: "The moon! the sun: it is not moonlight now."
. . .
Katherina: "I know it is the sun that shines so bright."
. . .
Katherina: "Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,
And be it moon, or sun, or what you please:
An if you please to call it a rush-candle,
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me."
. . .
Petruchio: "Nay, then you lie: it is the blessed sun."

Katherina: "Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun:
But sun it is not, when you say it is not;
And the moon changes even as your mind.
What you will have it named, even that it is;
And so it shall be so for Katharina."
. . .
Katherina: "Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes,
That have been so bedazzled with the sun
That everything I look on seemeth green:
Now I perceive thou art a reverend father;
Pardon, I pray thee, for my mad mistaking.""

William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Scene 5. (1594)
(Not about eclipses, but nonetheless of relevant interest.)

"Look, as the fair and fiery-pointed sun,
Rushing from forth a cloud, bereaves our sight;
Even so, the curtain drawn, his eyes begun
To wink, being blinded with a greater light:
Whether it is that she reflects so bright,
That dazzleth them, or else some shame supposed;
But blind they are, and keep themselves enclosed."

William Shakespeare The Rape of Lucrece, Stanza 54 (1594)
(Not about eclipses, but nonetheless of some interest.)

"No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense -
Thy adverse party is thy advocate -
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate
That I an accessary needs must be
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me."

William Shakespeare Sonnet 35 XXXV. (Mid-1590s)

"Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true love control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured
And the sad augurs mock their own presage;
Incertainties now crown themselves assured
And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
Now with the drops of this most balmy time
My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribes,
Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes:
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent."

William Shakespeare Sonnet 107 CVII. (Mid-1590s)

"A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen."

William Shakespeare Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act 1, Scene 1. (1602)

"Yes: 'tis Emilia. By and by. She's dead.
'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death. -
The noise was here. Ha! no more moving?
Still as the grave. Shall she come in? were't good? -
I think she stirs again: - no. What's best to do?
If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife:
My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
O insupportable! O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
Should yawn at alteration."

William Shakespeare Othello, The Moor of Venice Act 5, Scene 2. (1604)

"Gloucester: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty! 'Tis strange."

Edmund: "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, - often the surfeit of our own behaviour, - we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my nativity was under ursa major; so that it follows, I am rough and lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing."

[Enter Edgar]

"And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi."

Edgar: "How now, brother Edmund? What serious contemplation are you in?"

Edmund: "I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses."

Edgar: "Do you busy yourself with that?"

Edmund: "I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of unnaturalness between the child and the parents; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what."

Edgar: "How long have you been a sectary astronomical?""

William Shakespeare King Lear Act 1, Scene 2. (1605)

"Wendelin at Forcalquier in Provence saw the whole Sun hidden apart from a very narrow thread towards the north, which ascribed to the illuminated atmosphere."

Refers to a solar eclipse at Forcalquier, France, of 12 October 1605.
From: Riccioli.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 421.

"Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron."

William Shakespeare Macbeth Act 4, Scene 1. (1606)

"It was that fatall and perfidious Bark
Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark,
That sunk so low that sacred head of thine."

John Milton Lycidas, Line 100 (1637)

". . . [ the Sun was reduced to] a very slender crescent of light, the Moon all at once threw herself within the margin of the solar disc with such agility that she seemed to revolve like an upper millstone, affording a pleasant spectacle of rotatory motion."

Dr Wyberg, observing the total solar eclipse of 8 April 1652 at Carrickfergus, Scotland.
(Quoted in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.)

". . . the country people tilling, loosed their ploughs. The birds dropped to the ground."

Unattributed account, referring to the total solar eclipse of 8 April 1652.
(Quoted in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.)

" . . . Thus far these beyond
Compare of mortal prowess, yet observĪd
Thir dread Commander : he above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a Towr; his form had yet not lost
All her Original brightness, nor appearĪd
Less then Arch Angel ruind, and th' excess
Of Glory obscur'd : As when the Sun new ris'n
Looks through the Horizontal misty Air
Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclips, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. Dark'n'd so, yet shon
Above them all th' Arch Angel :"

John Milton Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 587-600 (1667)

"O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total Eclipse
Without all hope of day!
O first created Beam, and thou great Word,
Let there be light, and light was over all;
Why am I thus bereavĪd thy prime decree?
The Sun to me is dark
And silent as the Moon,
When she deserts the night
Hid in her vacant, interlunar cave."

John Milton Samson Agonistes (1671)
(The reference is to SamsonĪs blindness.)

"He beareth Or, a Sun eclipsed, Sable. If this Colour were not accidental in respect of the eclipse of the Sun, the same should not have been named. The Suns eclipse is occasioned by the Interposition of the Moon, which though it be far less in quantity, yet coming between us and the Body of the Sun, it doth discount the Beams thereof, and debarreth us of the sight of them even as the interposition of our hand, or any other small body, before our eyes, doth debar us from the sight of some greater Mountain. For to think that the Sun doth lose his light by the Eclipse, as doth a Candle being extinct, proceedeth out of meer [sic] rustick ignorance: As the like error is in those who think the Sun loseth his light, or goeth to Bed every night, whereas it doth only remove it self [sic] from our Horizon, to enlighten other Countries situated in other parts of the world. As was well expressed by Secundus the Philosopher, who being demanded by Adrian the Emperour what the Sun was, taking his Table in hand, wrote in this manner; Sol est Coeli oculus, coloris, circuitus, splendor fine ocasu dici ornatus, horarum distributor: It is the eye of Heaven, the circuit of heat, a shining without decay, the days ornament, the hours distributor. The most miraculous Eclipse of the Sun that ever was, happened then when the Sun [sic] of Righteousness, the Son of God, was on the Cross, when all the Earth was so benighted at Noon-Day, that Dionisius Aeropagita a Heathen Athenian, cryed out, Either the World was at an end, or the Maker of it was suffering from some great Agony."

John Guillim A Display of Heraldry (1679)
(Describes a shield displaying the Sun.)

"A few seconds before the sun was all hid, there discovered itself round the moon a luminous ring about a digit, or perhaps a tenth part of the moonĪs diameter, in breadth. It was of a pale whiteness, or rather pearl-colour, seeming to me a little tinged with the colors of the iris, and to be concentric with the moon."

Refers to a total solar eclipse of 3 May 1715.
From: Edmund Halley.
Quoted in Popular Astronomy by Newcomb, and in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.
Click here for Fred Espenak's map of this eclipse.

"A little before the annulus was complete, a remarkable point or speck of pale light appeared near the middle part of the Moon's circumference that was not yet come upon the disc of the Sun . . . During the appearance of the annulus the direct light of the Sun was still very considerable, but the places that were shaded from his light appeared gloomy. There was a dusk in the atmosphere, especially towards the north and east. In those chambers which had not their lights westwards the obscurity was considerable. Venus appeared plainly, and continued visible long after the annulus was dissolved, and I am told that other stars were seen by some."

Refers to the total solar eclipse of 1 March 1737.
From: Maclaurin, Philosophical Transactions, vol xi, pp181, 184, 1737.
Quoted in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.

"In regard to the approaching solar eclipse of Sunday April 1, I think it advisable to remark that, it happening in the time of divine service, it is desired you would insert this caution in your public paper. The eclipse begins soon after 9, the middle a little before 11, the end a little after 12. There will be no total darkness in the very middle, observable in this metropolis, but as peopleĪs curiosity will not be over with the middle of the eclipse, if the church service be ordered to begin a little before 12, it will properly be morning prayer, and an uniformity preserved in our duty to the Supreme Being, the author of these amazing celestial movements." our duty to the Supreme Being, the author of these amazing celestial movements."

Refers to an annular eclipse of 1 April 1764.
From: The Reverend Q Stukely, Rector of St George's in Kent, in a letter to the Whitehall Evening Post. The diary of the Reverend W Stukely, vol.xx, p 44.
Quoted in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.

"It will be Eclipse first, the rest nowhere."

Dennis OĪKelly (at Epsom, 3 May 1769)
(Quoted in The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations by Cohen and Cohen. In UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1, Sheridan Williams says: "One of the worldĪs most successful racehorses was born around the time of this [annular eclipse of 1 April 1764] and was named Eclipse. The Eclipse Stakes, named after that horse, are still run today, and the horse of the year awards in the U.S. are called Eclipse Awards after him.")

"Why is it that when all clouds have been driven from the sky and when Phoebus (Apollo) pours his rays onto the Earth and shines triumphantly, when nothing in the air can diminish the force of his fire, why does thick darkness sometimes suddenly cover over the dazzling face of this God of the Day? Why does impatient Night, anticipating the hour of her domain, come in the middle of a fine day and spread her dark veil and allow the astonished eyes of mortals to see only the weak glow of the stars? And why, at the very moment at which she was celebrating her reign in the sky, does Pheobe either retreat into the heart of darkness or show us the sad spectacle of her reddened and bloodied face? These are the phenomena that my Muse undertakes to celebrate and whose causes are explained by my lines.

You also reign over ethereal Olympus, over the cherished Olympus of the nine Sisters, divine Pheobus, reveal to my eyes the secrets of Nature, penetrate my heart with your sacred rays. Whether I am telling mortals how you deprive the Earth of the fire of your rays, or am showing them how you refuse to share them with Phoebe your sister, it is your interest that inspires me, it is you that I am celebrating. may my verses be worthy of the God I am praising.

And you, who are, for me, the most interesting and most beloved of the nine Sisters, you who, despising earthly regions, raise your chariot to the skies and hide your face amid the stars, divine Urania, favourable to my wishes, support and never abandon a poet who is devoted to you.

But rather than to Phoebus and to the learned Sisters, it is to you that I address my wishes. Your genius presides over these learned assemblies, at which the fathers of the sciences and of the arts penetrate the most hidden secrets of nature It is under your auspices that, from the banks of the Thames, they spread light over the vast regions of the Universe. Support with them a mortal who is enriched by their works and by yours. Yes, it is to you above all, illustrious Sages, that my Muse owes the object of its songs. . . .

Anxious to know the different eclipses of the sun and of the moon, to learn of their secret causes, your first concern will be to acquire a perfect knowledge of the celestial region; you will study the position of the stars and their movements.

First, as you contemplate the sky and see the countless stars that a fine night reveals to you, or a languishing Pheobe contracting her luminous disk, or the Sun himself raising himself onto the banks of dawn, do not believe that, like those golden nails that shine attached to our panelling, these various stars are also fixed to the vault of the heavens at the same height. Carried through the void or through a subtle air that is dispersed in the vastness of space, they rise unevenly towards Olympus and leave between themselves and the Earth varying distances.

Those whose trembling light constantly flickers, those whose fine rays only strike our eyes as an extremely sharp line, those stars always present us with the same respective position; a similar appearance always reveals them to be equally far apart: they have therefore been called fixed stars. Placed at immense distances, on the edges of the vast Universe, their height does not allow a single one of them to be analysed by the onlooker. Their fire may well equal, or even go beyond that of Phoebus; but their rays, scattered in the air and worn out by such a long journey, can barely overcome the shadows of the night. If you were to be transported by a bold flight into the loftiest regions of the sky, you would see the sun itself grow gradually smaller and be finally plunged into the darkness of night."

From: Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich The Eclipses, 1779. (Poem in six songs, dedicated to His Majesty King Louis XVI of France.)
Reprinted, with permission, from The Sky: Order and Chaos by Jean-Pierre Verdet, copyright Gallimard 1987, English Translation copyright Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, and Harry N Abrams, Inc., New York, 1992.

"With hue like that which some great painter dips
His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse."

Percy Bysshe Shelley The Revolt of Islam (1818)

"High on her speculative tower
Stood Science waiting for the hour
When Sol was destined to endure
That darkening of his radiant face
Which Superstition strove to chase,
Erewhile, with rites impure."

William Wordsworth The Eclipse of the Sun, 1820

"I was astounded by a tremendous burst of applause from the street below, and at the same moment was electrified at the sight of one of the most brilliant and splendid phenomena that can be imagined, for that instant the dark body of the Moon was suddenly surrounded with a corona, a kind of bright glory. I had anticipated a luminous circle around the Moon during the time of the total obscurity, but I did not expect from any of the accounts of previous eclipses that I had read to witness so magnificent an exhibition as that which took place. Splendid and astonishing, however, this remarkable phenomenon really was, and though it could not fail to call forth the admiration and applause of every beholder, yet I must confess there was at the same time something in its singular and wonderful appearance that was appalling. But the most remarkable circumstance attending the phenomenon was the appearance of three large, protuberances apparently emanating from the circumference of the Moon but evidently forming a portion of the corona."

Refers to the total solar eclipse of 1842.
From: Francis Baily.

"The hour for the beginning of the eclipse approached. Nearly twenty thousand people, with smoked glasses in hand, examined the radiant globe projected on an azure sky. Scarcely had we, armed with our powerful telescopes, begun to perceive a small indentation on the western limb of the sun, when a great cry, a mingling of twenty thousand different cries, informed us that we had anticipated only by some seconds the observation made with the naked eye by twenty thousand unprepared astronomer. A lively curiosity, emulation and a desire not to be forestalled would seem to have given to their natural sight unusual penetration and power. Between this moment and those that preceded by very little the total disappearance of the sun we did not remark in the countenances of many of the spectators anything that deserves to be related. But when the sun, reduced to a narrow thread, commenced to throw on our horizon a much-enfeebled light, a sort of uneasiness took possession of everyone. Each felt the need of communicating his impressions to those who surrounded him: hence a murmuring sound like that of a distant sea after a storm. The noise became louder as the solar crescent was reduced. The crescent at last disappeared, darkness suddenly succeeded the light, and an absolute silence marked this phase of the eclipse so that we clearly heard the pendulum of our astronomical clock. The phenomenon in its magnificence triumphed over the petulance of youth, over the levity that certain men take as a sign of superiority, over the noisy indifference of which soldiers usually make profession. A profound calm reigned in the air; the birds sang no more. After a solemn waiting of about two minutes, transports of joy, frantic applause, saluted with the same accord, the same spontaneity, the reappearance of the first solar rays. A melancholy contemplation, produced by unaccountable feelings, was succeeded by a real and lively satisfaction of which no one thought of checking or moderating the enthusiasm. For the majority of the public the phenomenon was at an end. The other phases of the eclipse had hardly any attentive spectators, apart from devoted to the study of astronomy."

Refers to the total solar eclipse in the south of France, 8 July 1842
From: Camille Flamarion, Popular Astronomy, 1894. The words are those of Fran”ois Arago.
Reprinted, with permission, from The Sky: Order and Chaos by Jean-Pierre Verdet, copyright Gallimard 1987, English Translation copyright Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, and Harry N Abrams, Inc., New York, 1992.

"The observations were tolerably successful. although the full beauty of the corona was not seen at Christiania, owing to the prevalence of thin clouds during the totality. The prominences were clearly visible, especially a large hooked protruberance. This remarkable stream of hydrogen gas, rendered incandescent while passing through the heated photosphere of the Sun, attracted the attention of nearly all the observers at the different stations. I succeeded in noting accurately the mean solar times of the beginning of the eclipse, and of the beginning and end of totality. As at Christiania the total darkness lasted only a few seconds more than 2-1/2 minutes, I could only examine in a hurried manner the various phenomena visible in the telescope. So absorbed was I during this short interval that when the limb of the Sun reappeared I could scarcely realize the fact that 2-1/2 minutes had elapsed since the commencement of totality. These were truly exciting moments, and although I had hastily witnessed most of the phenomena, I felt somewhat disappointed that more had not been accomplished. Few can imagine how much I longed for another minute, for what I had witnessed seemed very much like a dream.

As a spectacle, those who were not encumbered with telescopic work had the best of it. Several persons in different positions were requested to note the effects of the darkness on the landscape, plants, and animals. I kept my eye devotedly fixed to the eye-piece of the telescope during nearly the whole time of totality. I only removed it in order to obtain a few secondsĪ glance at the marvellous transformation around me, for the landscape had lost all its natural aspect, being tinted with various shades of colour over the intermixture of land and water. Some of my friends described the appearance, as the darkness gradually crept onwards, as truly awful."

Refers to the total solar eclipse of 28 July 1851, as seen from within the northern edge of the path of totality, in Scandinavia.
From: Edwin Dunkin, Autobiography, unpublished.
Compiled by Peter Hingley, Royal Astronomical Society.

"The approach of the total eclipse of July 28, 1851, produced in me a strong desire to witness so rare and striking a phenomenon. Not that I had much hope of being able to add anything of scientific importance to the accounts of the many experienced astronomer who were preparing to observe it; for I was not unaware of the difficulty which one not much accustomed to astronomical observation would have in preserving the requisite coolness and command of the attention amid circumstances so novel, where the points of interest are so numerous, and the time allowed for observation is so short. Certainly my experience has now shewn that I did not exaggerate these difficulties; but I have at least the satisfaction of having formed a far more vivid idea of the phenomenon than I could have obtained from any description; and I think that if I should ever have another opportunity of observing a total eclipse, I should be prepared to give a much better account of it that I can of the present.

. . . As the crescent became very narrow, it seemed to be in a state of violent agitation, and at last, just before totality, it broke up into several parts. These, however, were not like the "beads" described by Mr Baily, but were quite irregular, being evidently occasioned by the inequalities on the Moon's limb. As the totality approached, the gloom rapidly increased; still enough light remained up to the moment of total obscuration to render the change which then took place very marked and startling. For a few moments I felt somewhat confused . . .

The appearance of the corona, shining with a cold unearthly light, made an impression on my mind which can never be effaced, and an involuntary feeling of loneliness and disquietude came upon me. . . . A party of haymakers, who had been laughing and chatting merrily at their work during the early part of the eclipse, were now seated on the ground, in a group near the telescope, watching what was taking place with the greatest interest, and preserving a profound silence. . . .

A crow was the only animal near me; it seemed quite bewildered, croaking and flying backwards and forwards near the ground in an uncertain manner.

. . . As the shadow increased the change in the appearance of the country was most curious. The light became pale; our shadows were sharply cut, as by moonlight, but the light was more yellow. A deep gray twilight seemed to come on. Perhaps two minutes before the totality a dark, thick shade appeared over the west and north-west mountains, which drew nearer, till, when the eclipse became total, it entirely surrounded us, though it was paler or less dense towards the east. But on the instant that we were in complete shade, a bright orange streak of light appeared on the horizon to the north-west, spreading west and south."

Refers to a total solar eclipse on 28 July 1851.
From: John Couch Adams, On the a total Eclipse of the Sun, 28 July 1851, as seen at Frederiksvaern, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol xxi (1852).
The last two paragraphs are the observations by a Mr Liveing, quoted by Adams. In a footnote, Adams quotes from a letter written on August 9, 1851: "While the Sun is totally covered by the Moon, the latter appears surrounded by a luminous ring, with rays proceeding from it, something in the manner of the glory which is placed by painters round the heads of saints."
(John Couch Adams had earlier calculated the position of an unknown planet beyond Uranus, which was discovered in 1846 and named Neptune.)

"The screen of the glass was hurriedly removed, and in the brief instant of doing so I found, to my surprise, that all the phenomena were distinctly visible to the unassisted eye.

A corona light flashed out at the instant of totality. It extended farthest from the sun, in lines drawn from the centre through the solar clouds, but was nowhere traceable more than 15' or 16' beyond the lunar disk. There were no radial streamers, or bundles of rays, but only a uniformly diminishing, and slightly orange-tinted light, whose brightness and extent were apparently influenced by the mist-film, as the color of the clouds also may have been. Beyond the corona light, the color of the sky was of a grayish-black.

It was a far more imposing sight without than with the telescope, and long has been my experience in the investigation of celestial phenomena, and calm and unimpassioned, at such times, as my temperament has become, the sublime majesty of the scene thrilled me with excitement and humble reverence.

Nor was it less effective upon others. Two citizens of Olmos stood within a few feet of me, watching in silence, and with anxious countenances, the rapid and fearful decrease of light. They were totally ignorant that any sudden effect would follow the total obscuration of the sun. At that instant, one exclaimed, in terror--"La Gloria!" and both, I believe, fell to their knees in awe. They appreciated the resemblance of the corona to the halos with which the old masters have encircled their ideals of the heads of our Savior and the Madonna, and devoutly regarded this as a manifestation of the divine presence.

Though Mr. Raymond found a candle necessary to enable him to read satisfactorily the seconds-dial of the chronometer, and the vernier-scale of the barometer, the darkness during totality could not have been very great, for my sketches were completed without the aid of artificial light.

For some minutes previous, all work in the valley below us had ceased, and even the strains of martial music, which the Governor of Olmos employed to cheer laborers digging for water, two or three miles from town, were no longer audible. Superstition is still dominant here, and we hear the solemn toll of the church bell, whose sounds were intended to drive evil spirits from its vicinity.

Neither at Olmos nor Piura, did any enceinte woman leave her room during the eclipse, whilst some from curiosity, but more through fear, were in the streets, yet not daring to look upon the sun, lest malady befall them. The somber green light gave them the appearance of corpses, and they apprehended that a plague might be visited upon them. Afterwards, the muleteers told us that their animals stopped eating, and huddled together in evident alarm."

Lieut. J M Gillis An Account of the Total Eclipse of the Sun on September 7, 1858, as Observed Near Olmos, Peru in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. 11, April 1859, Smithsonian Institution.

"At the commencement of the obscuration, the sky was overcast, with heavy masses of cloud in the east, and there was much reason to fear that the celestial phenomenon would not be at all apparent hereabouts. But a brisk gale of wind having scattered the clouds, shortly before six oĪclock the sun became visible to the eager gaze of thousands, and again astronomical prediction was verified. The black shadow had eaten its way a considerable distance into the surface of the bright orb, and slowly but steadily the darkness appeared to extend itself over that dazzling surface. What a scrutiny the great change was attracting from all quarters of the earth! What an array of telescopes were eagerly searching the blue vault above during those precious moments!"

Refers to a solar eclipse of 18 July 1860, at Upper Fort Garry, Manitoba (outside the path of totality).
From: William Coldwell and William Buckingham, Nor'Wester.
Reprinted, with permission, from Chasing the Shadow, copyright 1994 by Joel K Harris and Richard L Talcott, by permission of Kalmbach Publishing Co.

"I had never before witnessed so great an obscuration of the sun as that presented by this eclipse many minutes even before the totality occurred, and I was particularly struck by the change of colour in the sky, which had been gradually losing its azure blue and assuming an indigo tint, while at the same time I remarked that the surrounding landscape was becoming tinged with a bronze hue, which to my mind suggested the idea that the light of the sun near the periphery is not only less intense than, but possibly different in quality from, that of the centre. . . . Another phenomenon could not fail to attract attention. When the sunĪs visible disk was reduced to a very narrow crescent, the shadows of all near objects became extremely black and sharply defined, whilst the lights, by contrast, assumed a peculiarly vivid intensity the aspect of nature strongly recalling to mind the effects produced by the illumination of the electric light. Several minutes before totality, the whole contour of the brown-looking lunar disk could be distinctly seen in the heavens.

Only a few brief seconds, unfortunately, could be spared from the telescope after totality had actually commenced; but when I had once turned my eyes on the moon encircled by the glorious corona, then on the novel and grand spectacle presented by the surrounding landscape, and had taken a hurried look at the wonderful appearance of the heavens, so unlike anything I had ever before witnessed, I was so completely enthralled, that I had to exercise the utmost self-control to tear myself away from a scene at once so impressive and magnificent, and it was with a feeling of regret that I turned aside to resume my self-imposed duties. I well remember that I wished I had not encumbered myself with apparatus, and I mentally registered a vow, that, if a future opportunity ever presented itself for my observing a total eclipse, I would give up all idea of making astronomical observations, and devote myself to that full enjoyment of the spectacle whch can only be obtained by a mere gazer.

Although, possibly, not more than twenty seconds were devoted to observations with the unassisted eye, the phenomena remain strongly impressed on my memory, and at the time of writing this account, sixteen months after the event, I have it now pictured before me mentally, as vividly as if it had just occurred. The darkness was not nearly so great as I had been led to expect from the accounts which I had read of former total eclipses; and although I had a lantern at hand, I did not require it, either to make my drawings or for reading the divisions of the micrometer quadrant on the eyepiece. The illumination was markedly distinct from that which occurs in nature on any other occasion, and certainly was greater than on the brightest moonlight night; and yet, at the time, the light appeared to me less than what I remembered of bright moonlight. It was only by subsequent trials, in endeavouring to make out details of the drawings which I had made of the phenomena, and to distinguish between colours under various circumstances of moonlight and twilight, that I was able to form a proper appreciation of the amount of light; and the best account I can give of it is, that it most resembles that degree of illumination which exists in a clear sky soon after sunset, when after having made out a first-magnitude star, other stars of less brilliancy can be discerned one after another. The light was good enough and sufficiently polychromatic to enable me to distinguish the colours of near objects; but those in the distance appeared to be illumined by the most unearthly hues.

Immediately surrounding the corona, the sky had an indigo tint, which extended to within about thirty or twenty-five degrees of the horizon, while lower down it appeared to me to be modified by a tinge of sepia. It became red as it approached the horizon, close to which, and just above the mountains, it was of a brilliant orange. The mountains appeared, by contrast, of an intensely dark yet brilliant blue. I saw two stars to the east of the sun, which by the aid of Mr HindĪs diagram I have since identified as Jupiter and Venus; but I had not time to search for more, or, most probably, I should have seen others. . . .

The effect of totality upon the bystanders was most remarkable. until the beginning of totality, the murmur of the conversation of many tongues had filled the air; but then in a moment every voice was hushed, and the stillness was so sudden as to be perfectly startling; then the ear caught the sound of the village bells, which had been tolling unheeded during the eclipse, and this circumstance added much to the solemn grandeur of the occasion."

Refers to a total solar eclipse of 18 July 1860.
From: Warren De La Rue, On the Total Solar Eclipse of July 18th, 1860, observed at Rivabellosa, near Miranda de Ebro, in Spain, Philosophical Transactions, 52, 1862, p 333, Royal Society.

"But at the moment of totality, all became silent and dumb. Neither a cry nor a rustling, nor even a whisper (was heard), but everywhere there was anxiety and consternation. To everyone the two minutes of the eclipse were like two hours. I do not exaggerate or imagine any of these details. Several people whom I questioned after the eclipse regarding the duration of totality replied that it had lasted for two hours."

Refers to a total solar eclipse in Sudan of 18 July 1860.
From: M Bey, Comptes Rendus.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 385.

"From the first second of contact I watched with all the attention I could command for any change in the effect on the landscape and sky.

The sky might then be described as dull, not particularly dark, with small light clouds passing rapidly across, the general tone being inclined to violet-grey. No change took place till within a few seconds of totality, when the light was very sensibly lessened.

At the first moment of totality, sudden darkness came on; dark purple clouds appeared on the horizon, with streaks of bright orange between them. The distant town of Jerez, from white, became a dark rich blue.

The corona was radiating, and not perfectly circular, and varied as totality progressed; it was never symmetrical, and much too vague to enable me to describe by a line, excepting where a curved opening on the left-hand lower limb of the moon occurred, as shown in the drawing. The colour of the corona was warm white, and I could perceive nothing approaching a defined edge to the bright light immediately around the moon; it simply became less bright as the distance increased from the moon, though the contrast of the dark moon with the brightest part of the corona might induce a less practised observer to call it a ring of light. The drawing I send with this was painted immediately after, and is truest in colour and general effect as anything I ever did."

Refers to a total solar eclipse in Spain of 2 December 1870.
From: Paul Jacob Naftel (official artist for the eclipse expedition, led by the Reverend J S Perry).
Quoted in Paul Jacob Naftel by Furniss and Booth.

"The Star of Night [the Moon], by its comparative proximity and the rapidly recurring spectacle of its various phases, was with the Sun one of the first to attract the attention of the dwellers on Earth. But the Sun is tiring to the eyes, and the brightness of its light forced the observers to turn aside their prying glances.

Fair Pheobe [the Moon], more humane in this respect, allows herself to be observed in her modest gracefulness: she is gentle to the eye and unambitious, and yet she sometimes permits herself to eclipse her brother, the radiant Apollo [the Sun], without ever being eclipsed by him."

Jules Verne (1828-1905) From Earth to Moon

""I think I have it," said Good, exultingly; "ask them to give us a moment to think." I did so, and the chiefs withdrew. As soon as they were gone, Good went to the little box in which his medicines were, unlocked it, and took out a note book, in the front of which was an almanac. "Now, look here, you fellows, isn't to-morrow the fourth of June?" We had kept a careful note of the days, so were able to answer that it was. "Very good; then here we have it '4 June, total eclipse of the sun commences at 11.15 Greenwich time, visible in these islands, Africa, etc.' There's a sign for you. Tell them that you will darken the sun to-morrow."

The idea was a splendid one; indeed, the only fear about it was a fear lest Good's almanac might be incorrect. If we made a false prophecy on such a subject, our prestige would be gone forever, and so would Ignosi's chance of the throne of the Kukuanas.

"Suppose the almanac is wrong?" suggested Sir Henry to Good, who was busily employed in working out something on the fly-leaf of the book.

"I don't see any reason to suppose anything of the sort," was his answer. "Eclipses always come up to time; at least, that is my experience of them, and it especially states that it will be visible in Africa. I have worked out the reckonings as well as I can without knowing our exact position; and I make out that the eclipse should begin here about one o'clock to-morrow, and last till half-past two. For half an hour or more there should be total darkness."

"Well," said Sir Henry, "I suppose we had better risk it."

I acquiesced, though doubtfully, for eclipses are queer cattle to deal with, and sent Umbopa to summon the chiefs back. Presently they came, and I addressed them thus:

"Great men of the Kukuanas, and thou, Infadoos, listen. We are not fond of showing our powers, since to do so is to interfere with the course of nature, and plunge the world into fear and confusion; but as this matter is a great one, and as we are angered against the king because of the slaughter we have seen, and because of the act of the Isanusi Gagool, who would have put our friend Ignosi to death, we have determined to do so, and to give such a sign as all men may see. Come thither," and I led them to the door of the hut and pointed to the fiery ball of the rising sun; "what see ye there?"

"We see the rising sun," answered the spokesman of the party.

"It is so. Now tell me, can any mortal man put out that sun, so that night comes down on the land at midday?"

The chief laughed a little. "No, my lord, that no man can do. The sun is stronger than man who looks on him."

"Ye say so. Yet I tell you that this day, one hour after midday, will we put out that sun for a space of an hour, and darkness shall cover the earth, and it shall be for a sign that we are indeed men of honor, and that Ignosi is indeed king of the Kukuanas. If we do this thing will it satisfy ye?"

"Yea, my lords," answered the old chief with a smile, which was reflected on the faces of his companions; "if ye do this thing we will be satisfied indeed."

"It shall be done: we three, Incubu the Elephant, Bougwan the clear-eyed, and Macumazahn, who watches in the night, have said it, and it shall be done. Dost thou hear, Infadoos?"

"I hear, my lord, but it is a wonderful thing that ye promise, to put out the sun, the father of all things, who shines forever."

"Yet shall we do it, Infadoos."

"It is well, my lords. To-day, a little after midday, will Twala send for my lords to witness the girls dance, and one hour after the dance begins shall the girl whom Twala thinks the fairest be killed by Scragga, the king's son, as a sacrifice to the silent stone ones, who sit and keep watch by the mountains yonder," and he pointed to the three strange looking peaks where Solomon's Road was supposed to end. "Then let my lords darken the sun, and save the maiden's life and the people will indeed believe."

"Ay," said the old chief, still smiling a little, "the people will believe, indeed."

"Two miles from Loo," went on Infadoos, "there is a hill curved like the new moon, a stronghold, where my regiment, and three other regiments which these men command, are stationed. This morning we will make a plan whereby other regiments, two or three, may be moved there also. Then, if my lords can indeed. darken the sun, in the darkness I will take my lords by the hand and lead them out of Loo to this place, where they shall be safe, and thence can we make war upon Twala, the king."

"It is good," said I. "Now leave us to sleep awhile and make ready our magic."

. . .

"I hope it will come off," said Sir Henry, doubtfully. "False prophets often find themselves in painful positions."

"If it does not, it will soon be up with us," I answered, mournfully; "for so sure as we are living men, some of those chiefs will tell the whole story to the king, and then there will be another sort of eclipse, and one that we shall not like."

. . .

"Now's your time," whispered Sir Henry to me; "what are you waiting for?"

"I am waiting for the eclipse," I answered; "I have had my eye on the sun for the last half-hour, and I never saw it look healthier."

"Well, you must risk it now or the girl will be killed. Twala is losing patience."

Recognizing the force of the argument, having cast one more despairing look at the bright face of the sun, for never did the most ardent astronomer with a theory to prove await a celestial event with such anxiety, I stepped, with all the dignity I could command, between the prostrate girl and the advancing spear of Scragga.

. . .

"Stop!" I shouted, boldly, though at the moment my heart was in my boots. "Stop! we, the white men from the stars, say that it shall not be. Come but one pace nearer and we will put out the sun and plunge the land in darkness. Ye shall taste of our magic."

My threat produced an effect; the men halted, and Scragga stood still before us, his spear lifted.

"Hear him! hear him!" piped Gagool; "hear the liar who says he will put out the sun like a lamp. Let him do it and the girl shall be spared. Yes, let him do it, or die with the girl, he and those with him."

I glanced up at the sun, and, to my intense joy and relief, saw that we had made no mistake. On the edge of its brilliant surface was a faint rim of shadow.

I lifted my hand solemnly towards the sky, an example which Sir Henry and Good followed, and quoted a line or two of the "Ingoldsby Legends" at it in the most impressive tones I could command: Sir Henry followed suit with a verse out of the Old Testament, while Good addressed the king of day in a volume of the most classical bad language that he could think of.

Slowly the dark rim crept on over the blazing surface, and as it did so I heard a deep gasp of fear rise from the multitude around.

"Look, O king! Look, Gagool! Look, chiefs and people and women, and see if the white men from the stars keep their word, or if they be but empty liars !

"The sun grows dark before your eyes; soon there will be night - ay, night in the noon-time. Ye have asked for a sign; it is given to ye. Grow dark, O sun! withdraw thy light, thou bright one; bring the proud heart to the dust, and eat up the world with shadows."

A groan of terror rose from the on lookers. Some stood petrified with fear, others threw themselves upon their knees and cried out. As for the king, he sat still and turned pale beneath his dusky skin. Only Gagool kept her courage.

"It will pass," she cried; "I have seen the like before; no man can put out the sun; lose not heart; sit still - the shadow will pass."

. . .

Meanwhile the dark ring crept on. Strange and unholy shadows encroached upon the sunlight, an ominous quiet filled the place, the birds chirped out frightened notes and then were still; only the cocks began to crow.

On, yet on, crept the ring of darkness; it was now more than half over the reddening orb. The air grew thick and dusky. On, yet on, till we could scarcely see the fierce faces of the group before us. No sound now rose from the spectators, and Good stopped swearing.

"The sun is dying - the wizards have killed the sun," yelled out the boy Scragga at last. "We shall all die in the dark,"

. . .

For an hour or more we journeyed on, till at length the eclipse began to pass, and that edge of the sun which had disappeared the first became again visible. In another five minutes there was sufficient light to see our whereabouts . . ."

From: H Rider Haggard, King Soloman's Mines (1886).

See Exploratorium: Eclipse Expeditions, 1887. Preliminary Report of Prof. David P Todd, Astronomer in Charge of the [American] Expedition to observe a total solar eclipse in Japan in 1887.

"I knew that the only total eclipse of the sun in the first half of the sixth century occurred on the twenty-first of June, A.D. 528 o.s., and began at three minutes after twelve noon. I knew also that no total eclipse of the sun was due in what to me was the present year - i.e., 1879.

. . . I said to myself that my eclipse would be sure to save me, and make me the greatest man in the kingdom besides;

. . . I waited two or three moments: then looked up; he was standing there petrified. With a common impulse the multitude rose slowly up and stared into the sky. I followed their eyes; as sure as guns, there was my eclipse beginning! The life went boiling through my veins; I was a new man! The rim of black spread slowly into the sunĪs disk, my heart beat higher and higher, and still the assemblage and the priest stared into the sky, motionless. I knew that this gaze would be turned upon me, next. When it was, I was ready. I was in one of the most grand attitudes I ever struck, with my arm stretched up pointing to the sun. It was a noble effect.

. . . "Name any terms, reverend sir, even to the halving of my kingdom; but banish this calamity, spare the sun!"

My fortune was made. I would have taken him up in a minute, but I couldn't stop an eclipse; the thing was out of the question. So I asked time to consider. The king said -

"How long - ah, how long, good sir? Be merciful; look, it groweth darker, moment by moment. Prithee how long?"

"Not long. Half an hour - maybe an hour."

There were a thousand pathetic protests, but I couldnĪt shorten up any, for I couldnĪt remember how long a total eclipse lasts.

. . . It grew darker and darker and blacker and blacker, while I struggled with those awkward sixth-century clothes. It got to be pitch dark, at last, and the multitude groaned with horror to feel the cold uncanny night breezes fan through the place and see the stars come out and twinkle in the sky. At last the eclipse was total, and I was very glad of it, but everybody else was in misery; which was quite natural. I said:

"The king, by his silence still stands to the terms." Then I lifted up my hands - stood just so a moment - then I said, with the most awful solemnity: "Let the enchantment dissolve and pass harmless away!"

There was no response, for a moment, in that deep darkness and that graveyard hush. But when the silver rim of the sun pushed itself out a moment or two later, the assemblage broke loose with a vast shout and came pouring down like a deluge to smother me with blessings and gratitude;"

From: Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).
There was no total eclipse of the Sun in England in AD 528.

"If, during the progress of a total [solar] eclipse, the gradually diminishing crescent of the sun is watched, nothing remarkable is seen until very near the moment of its total disappearance. But, as the last ray of sunlight vanishes, a scene of unexampled beauty, grandeur, and impressiveness breaks upon the view. The globe of the moon, black as ink, is seen as if it were hanging in mid-air, surrounded by a crown of soft, silvery light, like that which the old painters used to depict around the heads of saints. Besides this ÓcoronaŌ, tongues of rose-coloured flame of the most fantastic forms shoot out from various points around the edge of the lunar disk. Of these two appearances, the corona was noticed at least as far back as the time of Kepler; indeed, it was not possible for a total eclipse to happen without the spectators seeing it. But it is only within a century that the attention of astronomers has been directed to the rose-coloured flames, although an observation of them was recorded in the Philosophical Transactions nearly two centuries ago. They are known by the several names of "flames," "prominences," and "protruberances.""

Simon Newcomb Popular Astronomy 1890

See Exploratorium: Eclipse Expeditions, 1890. Albert Bergman, On Board the Pensacola - The Eclipse Expedition to the West Coast of Africa in A Man Before the Mast, 1890.

See Exploratorium: Eclipse Expeditions, 1896. Corona and Coronet: Being a Narrative of the Amherst Eclipse Expedition to Japan, in Mr James's Schooner-Yacht Coronet, to Observe the Sun's Total Obscuration, 9th August, 1896. A particularly evocative account, by Mabel Loomis Todd. Published in 1898.

". . . the semi-darkness, for there was no real blackness, came on suddenly, and during totality, computed to last 1m 28s., everything terrestrial took on a cold iron hue, altogether different from the gloom of evening. The distant town and more distant mountains were almost blotted out from view, whilst in the heavens above round the moonĪs black disk, as if by the touch of a magicianĪs wand, there flashed out the corona in grandeur of form and of pearly whiteness. Mercury, too, in close proximity, shone with the brilliance of a miniature sun, and enveloping the whole was a halo of soft white light; a spectacle whose unique beauty words fail utterly to describe."

Refers to a total solar eclipse at Navalmoral, Spain, of 28 May 1900.
From: T Weir, a member of the British Astronomical Association eclipse expedition.

Reprinted, with permission, from Chasing the Shadow, copyright 1994 by Joel K Harris and Richard L Talcott, by permission of Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Two further quotable reports of this eclipse appear at Exploratorium: Eclipse Expeditions, 1900. Both are from the Report of the expeditions organized by the British Astronomical Association to observe the total solar eclipse of 1900, May 28. See the reports by E W Johnson "Elche" (Spain) in Chapter VII, and by E Walter Maunder, "Algiers" (Spain) in Chapter VIII.

See Exploratorium: Eclipse Expeditions, 1901. Report by Dr A A Nijland, Total Eclipse of the Sun, May 18, 1901. From reports on the Dutch Expedition to Karang Sago, Sumatra, published by the Eclipse Committee of the Royal Academy, Amsterdam, March 1903.

"At a Lunar Eclipse
Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,
Now steals along upon the Moon's meek shine
In even monochrome and curving line
Of imperturbable serenity.

How shall I like such sun-cast symmetry
With the torn troubled form I know as thine,
That profile, placid as a brow divine,
With continents of moil and misery?

And can immense mortality but throw
So small a shade, and Heaven's high human scheme
Be hemmed within the coasts yon arc implies?

Is such a stellar gauge of earthly show,
nation at war with nation, brains that teem,
Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?"

Thomas Hardy At a Lunar Eclipse (1903)

"I was so enthralled with this celestial shadow tearing across the world that I almost forgot everything else. Hurriedly, I looked above my head. The sky was dark blue, flecked with mother of pearl clouds, wonderfully luminous. I turned east, and there in the clear sky, between patches of bright cloud was a black disc entirely surrounded by living flames. I did not notice BailyĪs Beads, neither did I see the corona. I had not eyes for anything save those leaping, glowing flames. It seemed hardly more than a second or two that they were visible, for the Moon slipped by, and a tiny slit of Sun appeared; instantly it was broad daylight once more. The eclipse was over. Down the hillside we scrambled, our thoughts and minds full of the great sight we had seen. it was not Ķtill we saw the morning papers that we learned how disappointed thousands of people had been."

Refers to a total solar eclipse near Clitheroe, England of 29 June 1927.
Dorothy Sabin.
Quoted in Astronomy Now, Vol 2, No 2, and in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.

"My experience of the 1927 eclipse was unsatisfactory, and it was my own fault. I was just 14 years old.

I was able to join a party of school children selected for their interest in astronomy and in eclipses, by answering questons set by the newspaper The News Chronicle. We went from London by train on the day before, were taken in as guests by the parents of boys of a school in southport, and entertained by the City Council for high tea on the day before. Then all went to the seashore on the day of the eclipse. My recollection is that the Sun rose partially eclipsed and totality was early in the morning, but I could be wrong. On the shore (extensive sands, I think), there was a party of professional astronomers with a large camera, near to our party. Visibility was fair, but not perfect.

I was quite a keen photographer and thought I could get a photo by making a box camera with a long-focus lens which I had. I took a lot of trouble to make the box and fit the lens, which of course had a cap. On the night before the eclipse I found a suitably dark place and fixed at the back of the camera a piece of Kodak Cut Film. I supposed that with an exposure of about 15 seconds, during totality, I might catch the chromosphere (and corona?) without too much movement of the Sun. (I was wrong - the movement would have spoiled the picture.) When the film was developed, there was no image.

So I had been distracted from seeing the eclipse by this silly idea of trying to get a photo, and I have no memory of the eclipsed Sun, nor of the dark sky. I don't know what the birds did.

My advice to photographers would be - don't bother. Just enjoy the eclipse with full attention, hoping that later, photographs might be bought."

Alfred Nicholls, Oxford, 6 January 1998. Mr Nicholls is a retired physics teacher.
The eclipse of 29 June 1927 was the last total solar eclipse to be seen from the mainland of Britain. The eclipse started at 4.30 am, and totality lasted only 24 seconds.

The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun by Herg», (1949), contains yet another fictitious account of prisoners being saved by a solar eclipse.

The Sun-Eating Dragon, And Other Ways to Think About an Eclipse by Noel Wanner, contains an evocative account of a recent total solar eclipse, seen from the hills of Washington state, USA, by Annie Dilard: Total Eclipse in Teaching a Stone to Talk.

An interpretaion of dreams about eclipses appears in Understanding Dreams, Collins Gem, Published by Harper Collins, Glasgow, 1993.

Finally, for the most unpoetic description of a total solar eclipse, see Liz Rigbey's novel, Total Eclipse, published by Orion Books Ltd, London, 1995.

CONTRIBUTORS

David Sang, Association for Science Education
Gareth Coleman, Guernsey
Peter Hingley, Royal Astronomical Society