Eclipses Used To Be Terrifying

2023-10-13

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This Product is supported by the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (NASA HEAT), part of NASA’s Science Activation portfolio.

The material contained in this document is based upon work supported by a National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) grant or cooperative agreement. Any questions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this materials are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.

Because eclipses are powerful and frightening events, ancient cultures went to great lengths to understand eclipses, leading to remarkably accurate predictions and helping invent the science of astronomy.

LEARN MORE

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

- Saros: a period of about 18 years between repetitions of solar and lunar eclipses.

If you liked this week’s video, you might also like:

The Five Millenium Canon of Solar Eclipses - https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpubs/5MCSE.html

CREDITS

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Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director

Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation

Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

https://neptunestudios.info

OTHER CREDITS

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Stonehenge Midsummer Sunrise 2013

Photo by: Flickr user Stonehenge Stone Circle

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stonehenge-stone-circle/8980676956/

Bamboo Annals: double dawn

Liu, Liu, and Ma, 2003, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (ISSN 1440-2807), Vol. 6, No. 1, p. 53 - 63, Figure 2. Bamboo Annals: double dawn.

https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/2003JAHH....6...53L/0000060.000.html

Cuneiform tablet: ephemeris of eclipses

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/321969

Seleucid ca. 4th–2nd century BCE / Met Museum

Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus (NASA's GSFC)

Five Millennium Canon of Lunar Eclipses

Saros series (via NASA)

Adapted from a Map illustration by Michael Zeiler

Paths of totality from eclipse calculator by Xavier Jubier

Eclipse predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Many Saros Series

Adapted from: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas3/SEatlas2041.GIF

Credit: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA GSFC Emeritus.

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REFERENCES

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Brown, Daniel. “Blood Moon: Lunar Eclipse Myths from around the World.” The Conversation, theconversation.com/blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-myths-from-around-the-world-100548

Carman, Christián C., and James Evans. “On the Epoch of the Antikythera Mechanism and Its Eclipse Predictor.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, vol. 68, no. 6, Nov. 2014, pp. 693–774, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-014-0145-5

COLTON, R., and R. L. MARTIN. “Eclipse Cycles and Eclipses at Stonehenge.” Nature, vol. 213, no. 5075, Feb. 1967, pp. 476–478, https://doi.org/10.1038/213476a0

de Jong, T., and W. H. van Soldt. “The Earliest Known Solar Eclipse Record Redated.” Nature, vol. 338, no. 6212, Mar. 1989, pp. 238–240, https://doi.org/10.1038/338238a0

Espenak, Fred. “NASA - Eclipses and the Saros.” Eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros.html

Espenak, Fred, and Jean Meeus. Five Millennium Canon of Lunar Eclipses. 7 Aug. 2021.

Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses. 30 July 2021.

HAWKINS, GERALD S. “Stonehenge: A Neolithic Computer.” Nature, vol. 202, no. 4939, June 1964, pp. 1258–1261, https://doi.org/10.1038/2021258a0

Hermann Hunger, and David Pingree. Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia. Leiden ; Boston, Brill, 1999.

HOYLE, FRED. “Stonehenge–an Eclipse Predictor.” Nature, vol. 211, no. 5048, July 1966, pp. 454–456, www.nature.com/articles/211454a0.pdf, https://doi.org/10.1038/211454a0

Liu, C., et al. “Examination of Early Chinese Records of Solar Eclipses.” Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, vol. 6, no. 1, 2003, pp. 53–63, adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2003JAHH....6...53L

“NASA - Sun-Earth Day - Technology through Time - Babylon”. sunearthday.nasa.gov/2006/locations/babylon.php.

Rubio, Gonzalo. “How Eclipses Were Regarded as Omens in the Ancient World.” The Conversation, theconversation.com/how-eclipses-were-regarded-as-omens-in-the-ancient-world-81248

Tsu, Wen Shion. “A Statistical Survey of Solar Eclipses in Chinese History.” Popular Astronomy, vol. 42, no. 136, 1934, adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1934PA.....42..136T