Eclipse: The science and history of nature's most spectacular phenomenon
J. P. McEvoy
J P McEvoy looks at remarkable phenomenon of a solar eclipse through a thrilling narrative that charts the historical, cultural and scientific relevance of solar eclipses through the ages and explores the significance of this rare event.In the year when Britain will be touched by a solar eclipse for the first time since 1927, J P McEvoy looks at this remarkable phenomenon through a thrilling narrative that charts the historical, cultural and scientific relevance of solar eclipses through the ages and explores the significance of this rare event.Eclipse shows how the English Astronomer Norman Lockyer named the element Helium from the spectra of the eclipsed Sun, and how in Cambridge Arthur Eddinton predicted the proof of Einstein’s General Relativity from the bending of sunlight during the famous African eclipse of 1919.During late morning on 11 August, 1999 the shadow of the last total eclipse of the Millennium will cut across the Cornwall Peninsula and skirt the coast of Devon before moving on to the continent, ending its journey at sunset in the Bay of Bengal, India. Britain’s next eclipse will be in September, 2090.Throughout history, mankind has exhibited a changing response to the eclipse of the sun. The ancient Mexicans believed the Sun and the Moon were quarrelling whilst the Tahitians thought the two celestial objects were making love.Today, astronomers can calculate the exact path the moon’s shadow will track during the solar eclipse. As millions encamp for the brief spectacle with mylar glasses, pin-hole cameras, binoculars and telescopes, space agency satellites and mountain-top observatories study the corona, flares and the magnetosphere of the Sun as the 125 mile-wide black patch zooms along the ground at 2000 mph.
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_bf36cf51-597d-52d0-83cb-bf32608f499e)
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street Lodnon SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)
Copyright © J. P. McEvoy 1999
First published in Great Britain in 1999 by Fourth Estate Limited
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for permission. Any omissions or errors will be corrected in future editions.
Designed by Robert Updegraff
Illustrations by Mark McEvoy
The right of J. P. McEvoy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN 9781841151847
Ebook Edition © MARCH 2017 ISBN: 9780007480302
Version: 2017-03-01
DEDICATION (#ulink_55738a17-1e6b-5e39-9dd6-d717c0bc6229)
For Emily, Muirenn, Joel
and the baby arriving with the eclipse
in August 1999
CONTENTS
Cover (#u0547deaa-fe08-57ea-aee8-1f2e8604c44d)
Title Page (#u7557eaaa-3f1d-5a4a-8668-3468a4ddf6b9)
Copyright (#ulink_ce70fef8-9b5c-5ab3-a060-d28b9a3f1097)
Dedication (#ulink_669d6e20-11a2-5b53-b8b6-e81b50cd2eb8)
Prologue (#ulink_f1c18637-8079-51c5-8417-56e8210db6f9)
Understanding an Eclipse (#ulink_c875fab4-f3f9-5091-9a64-acb8b415c11b)
The Babylonians, Chroniclers of Eclipses
The Saros Cycle: the 6585-Day Coincidence
Ancient Predictions of Eclipses: Controversies
Tracking a Solar Eclipse
The Sun’s Surface: Victorian Solar Eclipses
Confirming General Relativity
The Last Eclipse of the Millennium
Glossary (#ulink_aa926427-c848-587c-a453-250be441f494)
Further Reading (#ulink_0bfc04eb-1e85-5a5d-853b-b04f32d35b31)
Acknowledgements (#ulink_47ad99ee-73ec-51a2-a47f-d3062e67ce7d)
Index (#ulink_e2f9954e-4691-5760-9715-64702df9c216)
Other Books By (#ulink_f33e67cf-9659-58ab-936c-22d117ba587d)
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE (#ulink_3fd05f3f-3670-5380-a66a-6579c9f5b4dc)
Darkness at Noon: Baja Mexico, 11 July 1991
Stretching over 1,300 km south of the California state line between San Diego and Tijuana is a peninsula of mountains, deserts and plains ending at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Fine golden sand for miles and miles slopes into the azure Sea of Cortés and the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula, called Baja California, is actually part of Mexico. In the heat of the summer of 1991 I arrived, planning to view my first total eclipse of the Sun.
The morning of 11 August is bright and clear. Amid the palm trees and cactus plants all along the beach, tripods are being set up in the sand, an army of straw hats and Bermuda shorts appear as far as the eye can see. Everyone is buoyant. Not a single cloud in the sky, though still a few hours to go. Totality would be unusually long today at Los Cabos, 6 minutes 26 seconds, close to the theoretical maximum for a solar eclipse. The Moon’s shadow, when it reaches Baja, will be 260 km wide, moving along the beach at a speed of about 40 km per minute. As the bell in the small church tolls 10:00 a.m., the crowd makes final adjustments to telescopes and cameras. The long wait is over. Twenty-three minutes to go.
First contact occurs at 10:23:17 as the Moon’s disk just touches the Sun’s. The sky continues to be cloudless and no one is thinking of the weather. The show has begun.
In earlier times humanity held its breath during this solar disappearing act, offering sacrifices to appease the evil spirits who might destroy humanity’s source of heat and life itself. Slowly the Moon cuts deeper and deeper into the Suns image and it is now obvious that the two disks have the same diameter, a remarkable coincidence. The light fades imperceptibly.
Two small Japanese girls watch the progress of the eclipse through special Mylar sunglasses, while their mother watches anxiously. The Moon’s shadow is now sweeping across the globe towards us on the beach at Los Cabos at twice the speed of Concorde. In an orbit above the earth, a weather satellite photographs the shadow of the Moon every half-hour during its journey.
As second contact approaches, the Sun has been reduced to a thin crescent and now breaks up into a string of bright beads. These are known as Baily’s beads, caused by the streaming of the last rays of sunlight between mountains at the edge of the Moon. One by one the beads disappear until only one is left, radiating brightly from a single point on the edge of the eclipse, like a diamond ring.
Baily’s beads
My watch reads 11:47:40 and the miracle happens: second contact. The diamond ring disappears and a delicate pearly white halo springs into view around the eclipsed Sun. This is the corona. I have 6 minutes and 26 seconds. I look at the sky map and locate four planets in the noonday sky, lined up just to the east of the eclipsed Sun. Mercury and Jupiter are the closest, then Mars and Venus. The twin stars Castor and Pollux are clear and bright in the darkened sky, quite near the Sun. Sirius is just due south of the Sun. Through my telescope I see massive pink gaseous formations floating in the Sun’s atmosphere, the solar prominences.
The diamond ring
I look away at my fellow sky-gazers along the beach. It is like a scene from Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Hundreds stand transfixed, motionless, staring directly up into the sky. No goggles or Mylar glasses are needed now. There is not a sound – even birds have stopped chirping. In the distance, I see what appears to be a sunset in all directions, 360° around the horizon. This is the illuminated Earth outside the canopy of darkness under the Moon’s shadow.
I check my stopwatch as third contact approaches. Then at 11:54:06, the corona disappears. In its place, the diamond ring effect and Baily’s beads repeat in reverse order. Cheers of excitement ripple through the crowd. A sliver of sunlight is now visible, and safety viewing devices are taken up to guard against the invisible ultraviolet waves. The Darkness at Noon is over.
The corona
One hour, fourteen minutes and forty seconds later, fourth contact occurs at 13:18:46. The Moon moves away from the Sun and the full disk returns. Everyone seems satisfied. The eclipse-chasers of the world have had their day in the Moon’s shadow. The travel, the hassles, the expense have all been worth it, viewing one of the greatest eclipses of the twentieth century.
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