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THE STORY OF ECLIPSES
_SIMPLY TOLD FOR GENERAL READERS._
WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE TOTAL ECLIPSE
OF THE SUN OF MAY 28, 1900.
BY
GEORGE F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S.
_Of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law._
AUTHOR OF
"THE STORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM"; "THE STORY OF THE STARS";
"A HANDBOOK OF DESCRIPTIVE ASTRONOMY," ETC.
LONDON: GEORGE NEWNES, LTD.
SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND
1899.
_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved._
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, Sept. 7, 1858
(_Liais_).]
PREFACE.
The present Volume is intended as a sequel to my two former volumes in
the Newnes Series of "Useful Stories," entitled respectively the "Story
of the Solar System," and the "Story of the Stars." It has been written
not only as a necessary complement, so to speak, to those works, but
because public attention is already being directed to the forthcoming
total eclipse of the Sun on May 28, 1900. This eclipse, though only
visible as a partial one in England, will be total no further off than
Portugal and Spain. Considering also that the line of totality will pass
across a large tract of country forming part of the United States, it
may be inferred that there will be an enormous number of
English-speaking spectators of the phenomenon. It is for these in
general that this little book has been written. For the guidance of
those who may be expected to visit Portugal or Spain, a temporary
Appendix has been prepared, giving a large amount of information showing
how those countries can be best reached, whether by sea or overland,
from the shores of England.
If anyone is inclined to doubt whether an eclipse expedition is likely
to provide non-astronomical tourists with incidents of travel, pleasant,
profitable, and even amusing, perhaps the doubt will be removed by a
perusal of the accounts of Sir F. Galton's trip to Spain in 1860
(_Vacation Tourists in 1860_, p. 422), or of Professor Tyndall's trip to
Algeria in 1870 (_Hours of Exercise in the Alps_, p. 429), or of
Professor Langley's Adventures on Pike's Peak in the Rocky Mountains,
Colorado, U.S., in 1878 (_Washington Observations_, 1876, Appendix III.
p. 203); or of some of the many Magazine and other narratives of the
Norway eclipse of 1896 and the Indian eclipse of 1898.
Subject to these special points no further prefatory explanation seems
needed, the general style of the contents being, _mutatis mutandis_,
identical with the contents of the Volumes which have gone before.
I have to thank my friend, Dr. A. M. W. Downing, the Superintendent of
the _Nautical Almanac_, for kindly verifying the calculations in
chapters II. and III.
G. F. C.
NORTHFIELD GRANGE,
EASTBOURNE, 1899.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 9
II. GENERAL IDEAS 11
III. THE SAROS AND THE PERIODICITY OF ECLIPSES 18
IV. MISCELLANEOUS THEORETICAL MATTERS CONNECTED
WITH ECLIPSES OF THE SUN (CHIEFLY) 34
V. WHAT IS OBSERVED DURING THE EARLIER STAGES
OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 40
The Moon's Shadow and the Darkness it causes 41
Shadow Bands 46
The Approach of Totality 49
The Darkness of Totality 53
Meteorological and other effects 54
VI. WHAT IS OBSERVED DURING THE TOTAL PHASE OF
AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 56
Baily's Beads 57
The Corona 62
VII. WHAT IS OBSERVED AFTER THE TOTAL PHASE OF
AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN IS AT AN END 73
VIII. ECLIPSES OF THE SUN MENTIONED IN HISTORY--CHINESE 75
IX. ARE ECLIPSES ALLUDED TO IN THE BIBLE 86
X. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--CLASSICAL 107
XI. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--THE CHRISTIAN
ERA TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 128
XII. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--MEDIÆVAL
AND MODERN 145
XIII. ECLIPSES MENTIONED IN HISTORY--NINETEENTH
CENTURY 162
XIV. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH AS APPLIED TO ECLIPSES
OF THE SUN 179
XV. ECLIPSES OF THE MOON--GENERAL PRINCIPLES 186
XVI. ECLIPSES OF THE MOON MENTIONED IN HISTORY 197
XVII. CATALOGUES OF ECLIPSES: AND THEIR CALCULATION 218
XVIII. STRANGE ECLIPSE CUSTOMS 224
XIX. ECLIPSES IN SHAKESPEARE AND THE POETS 229
XX. BRIEF HINTS TO OBSERVERS OF ECLIPSES 233
XXI. TRANSITS AND OCCULTATIONS 235
APPENDIX--INFORMATION RESPECTING THE TOTAL
ECLIPSE OF MAY 28, 1900, FOR TRAVELLERS VISITING
PORTUGAL AND SPAIN 239
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
FIG. 1. TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, SEPTEMBER 7,
1858 _Frontispiece_
" 2. THEORY OF TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 15
" 3. THEORY OF AN ANNULAR ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 16
" 4. ANNULAR ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 16
" 5. PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 17
" 6. SHADOW BANDS 47
" 7. RAYS OF LIGHT SEEN DURING TOTALITY 49
" 8. BRUSHES OF LIGHT 57
" 9. "BAILY'S BEADS," FOUR STAGES, AT BRIEF
INTERVALS (MAY 15, 1836) 58
" 10. CORONA OF 1882. SUN-SPOT MAXIMUM 68
" 11. CORONA OF 1867. SUN-SPOT MINIMUM 70
" 12. ECLIPSE OF JAN. 11, 689 B.C. AT JERUSALEM 100
" 13. THEORY OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON 187
" 14. CONDITIONS OF ECLIPSES OF THE MOON 189
" 15. OCCULTATION OF JUPITER, AUG. 7, 1889
(IMMERSION) 237
" 16. OCCULTATION OF JUPITER, AUG. 7, 1889
(IMMERSION) 237
" 17. OCCULTATION OF JUPITER, AUG. 7, 1889 (EMERSION) 238
" 18. OCCULTATION OF JUPITER, AUG. 7, 1889 (EMERSION) 238
" 19. PATH OF THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN OF
MAY 28, 1900 _at end of book._
THE STORY OF ECLIPSES.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
It may, I fear, be taken as a truism that "the man in the street"
(collectively, the "general public") knows little and cares less for
what is called physical science. Now and again when something remarkable
happens, such as a great thunderstorm, or an earthquake, or a volcanic
eruption, or a brilliant comet, or a total eclipse, something in fact
which has become the talk of the town, our friend will condescend to
give the matter the barest amount of attention, whilst he is filling his
pipe or mixing a whisky and soda; but there is not in England that
general attention given to the displays of nature and the philosophy of
those displays, which certainly is a characteristic of the phlegmatic
German. However, things are better than they used to be, and the
forthcoming total eclipse of the Sun of May 28, 1900 (visible as it will
be as a partial eclipse all over Great Britain and Ireland, and as a
total eclipse in countries so near to Great Britain as Spain and
Portugal, to say nothing of the United States), will probably not only
attract a good deal of attention on the part of many millions of
English-speaking people, but may also be expected to induce a
numerically respectable remnant to give their minds and thoughts, with a
certain amount of patient attention, to the Science and Philosophy of
Eclipses.
There are other causes likely to co-operate in bringing this about. It
is true that men's minds are more enlightened at the end of the 19th
century than they were at the end of the 16th century, and that a trip
to Spain will awaken vastly different thoughts in the year 1900 to those
which would have been awakened, say in the year 1587; but for all that,
a certain amount of superstition still lingers in the world, and total
eclipses as well as comets still give rise to feelings of anxiety and
alarm amongst ill-educated villagers even in so-called civilized
countries. Some amusing illustrations of this will be presented in due
course. For the moment let me content myself by stating the immediate
aim of this little book, and the circumstances which have led to its
being written. What those circumstances are will be understood generally
from what has been said already. Its aim is the unambitious one of
presenting in readable yet sound scientific language a popular account
of eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and (very briefly) of certain kindred
astronomical phenomena which depend upon causes in some degree similar
to those which operate in connection with eclipses. These kindred
phenomena are technically known as "Transits" and "Occultations."
Putting these two matters entirely aside for the present, we will
confine our attention in the first instance to eclipses; and as eclipses
of the Sun do not stand quite on the same footing as eclipses of the
Moon, we will, after stating the general circumstances of the case, put
the eclipses of the Moon aside for a while.