A solar eclipse is a darkening of the sun caused by
another heavenly body coming between it and the spectator. The cause is so
simple and familiar that it is difficult to imagine what terror was caused by
such a phenomenon, before knowledge of astronomy showed how it arose. The
ancients did not consider eclipses to be in the natural order of things. But
something monstrous, predicting terrible disasters. In Rome, at one time, to
talk publicly or there being due to natural causes was an offence punishable by
law. So strong a hold had this superstition on the popular mind that, even after
it came to be generally believed that eclipse of the sun were caused by the
moon coming between the earth and the sun, eclipses of the moon were still
considered to be due to some supernatural power. What the moon was in eclipse,
the people turned out and made a great noise with brazen instruments -- the
idea being that by doing so they gave her ease in her affliction. Similar
notions have prevailed among all barbarian tribes. The Chinese imagine eclipses
to be caused to great dragons trying to devour the sun and the moon and
accordingly they beat drums and brass kettles to terrify the monsters into easing
go their prey. Even in modem Pakistan. The ignorant country people still
believe that an eclipse, like a comet. is an omen of coming disaster.
The sun may be partially or wholly eclipsed. A
partial eclipse is caused by the moon passing over part of the face of the sun.
The sun’s disc loses its circular from: one part becomes obscured. The
obscuration increases for a time and then diminishes until it disappears
altogether. A total eclipse takes place when the moon comes between the sun and
the earth, and the whole sun becomes slowly darkened and finally disappears for
a time. It is observed that solar eclipses always happen at the time of a new
moon. When the sun and moon are on the same side of the earth. Astronomers can
calculate when the moon will come between the earth and the sun, and so can
predict exactly when an eclipse will take place and how long it will last.
Eclipses of the sun are of great value to astronomers, because when the sun
itself is blotted out from sight by the dark mass of the moon, the sun’s
corona, invisible to us in full sunlight, becomes visible and can be examined
by the telescope, and its composition determined by the spectroscope.
The almost instantaneous darkening of the sun,
particularly when it is unlooked for, is calculated to impress a spectator with
vague terror; even when expected, it fills the mind with awe. The sudden
darkness is impressive from its strangeness, as much as from occurring by day
it resembles neither the darkness of night nor the gloom of twilight. The cone
of the moon’s shadow, though it completely envelops the spectator, does not in
close the whole atmosphere above his horizon. The mass of unenclosed air, accordingly,
catches the sunlight, and reflects it into the region of the total eclipse,
making there a peculiar twilight. Starts and planets appears and all animals
are dismayed by the dismal aspect of nature.