Yesterday August 09, 0975 The Sun was eclipsed . . . . Some people say that it was entirely total. During the hours mao and chen (some time between 5 and 9 h) it was all gone. It was the colour of ink and without light. All the birds flew about in confusion and the various stars were all visible. There was a general amnesty (on account of the eclipse). From: Nihon Kiryaku. At the hour chen (7-9 h), the Sun was eclipsed; it was completely total. All under heaven became entirely dark and the stars were all visible. From: Fuso Ryakki. The Sun was eclipsed; it was all gone. It was like ink and without light. The stars were all visible (or: stars were visible in the daytime). From: Hyaku Rensho. These three Japanese quotations refer to a total solar eclipse of 9 August AD 975 August 09, 0994 During the years 1 to 3000 of non central total solar eclipses, totality of 994 August 9 had the greatest northern latitude of 73 degrees 08 arc minutes North, in Greenland. August 09, 1819 Birth of J. Lane, American physicist and astronomer. Studied the sun: solar physics, temperature and density. August 09, 1896 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 ”corona•, 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 Jamess Schooner-Yacht Coronet, to Observe the Suns Total Obscuration, 9th August, 1896. A particularly evocative account, by Mabel Loomis Todd. Published in 1898. August 09, 1911 Birth of William Alfred Fowler in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. August 09, 1953 Minor planet (1652) Hergé 1953 PA. Discovered 1953 August 9 by S. Arend at Uccle. Named in honor of Georges Remi, better known under his pseudonym Hergé, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday. Considered by many as the father of the comic strip, he created his hero Tintin in 1929. (M 6831) Name proposed by J. Meeus. The Tempel of the Sun describes a total solar eclipse. That eclipse refers to the TSE of 1944.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 19:44:14 +0000