A bit of a “non-event”
So, we were told, “the moon will appear to take a bite out of the sun … ” in today’s Partial Eclipse of the sun.
The amount of the sun which is hidden by the moon during a partial eclipse depends on how far you are “inside the penumbral shadow”. Although many Europen capitals would be able to see about half of the sun’s disc obscured by the moon, those living in the higher Northern latitudes of Europe would be the best placed for observing the phenomena, with something like 85% passing behind the moon as seen in Scandinavia. Here in Kyrgyzstan, on the other hand, it looked as if it would be a mere 25%.
That’s still quite impressive and so I prepared to brave the freezing cold. Iit was -8 degrees Celsius outside, according to the Weather Channel who also told us that with a Westerly wind blowing at 4 mph, it felt like -12 … believe me, it felt colder!
Unfortunately, however, the sky was overcast – a bit like typical English weather. Indeed, it appears that the skies of Britain were also swathed in cloud – although parts of East Anglia and the South Coast got quite a good view.
Here in Bishkek, the sun, shining high above the blanket cloud cover was visible but only as a glow penetrating through the clouds. The light shining through the cloud cover made some interesting patchwork patters but the solar disc itself was not to be seen.
At 3:57, the time of the maximum obscurity, it was a little darker than usual, but still quite bright and felt more like a stormy day.
I got some strange looks from the passers by as I stood at the roadside staring in the direction of the sun … but not directly at it!, I hasten to add. A soldier in combat fatigues walked by as I was trying to take a photograph and he turned to take a second look at what I was doing … and what the camera was pointing at. He turned – not once, not twice … but three times.
A pity that it turned out to be bit of a non event. I suppose I will have to rely on photos in National Geographic, (click here to see some), or the news footage on the TV, or the video clips that will almost certainly be posted on youtube or some of the otehr internet sites … like this informative video from the Kurdistan Planetarium – Honest Kurdistan … not Kyrgyzstan! :
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_tpCFYKqTQ&feature=player_embedded)
That’s not always been case. There are many recorded examples in the historical record, mythology and literature which testify to man’s interest in and beliefs about heavenly bodies. For example:
- the Chinese thought a Dragon was eating the sun during an eclipse;
- the ancient Greeks associated it as a portent of gods’ displaying their anger;
- the Assyrian calendar was based from an eclipse;
- a day in April 899 BC was recorded by Chinese Chroniclers as a day with two dawns, when a solar eclipse occurred soon after sunrise;
- failure to predict one apparently cost two ancient Chinese astronomers their heads;
- a dawn eclipse so alarmed the opposing Lydian and Persian armies preparing for battle that their kings were forced to sign a peace treaty between their nations bringing to an end five years of conflict between them, (incidentally, that eclipse was predicted by the great philosopher and Mathematician, Thales);
- an eclipse before another major battle in 480BC was taken by the Magi serving the Persian king Xerxes as a positive omen and they predicted a great victory … they were right of course, but it was his opponent that won it;
- an eclipse occurred in the midst of one of the major battles in Norway’s history, the Battle of Sticklestad;
- in 632 an eclipse was observed in Mecca, during the lifetime of the prophet Muhammed, and coincided with the death of his young son, Ibrahim;
- an eclipse in 1230 confused farm labourers who retired to their beds, only to have to rise again and return to work after a couple of hours;
- there are thought to be references to an eclipse in Homer’s Odyssey and in the Bible, (in the book of Amos – and, of course in the account of the crucifixion on Good Friday); and
- and Bing Crosby, playing the Connecticut Yankee in the film of Mark Twain’s book about King Arthur’s Court, predicts a solar eclipse in order to outfox Merlin …
If I was superstitious then I might have felt that it would have been nice to have started the year with something that could be taken as a portent of good fortune – just as the one predicted by Thales brought two opposing nations to their senses. On the other hand, we shouldn’t forget the warning in the story Xerxes’ magi … it’s all too easy to read into such signs what we want to see. We shouldn’t try to manipulate events as Bing Crosby’ character did … but simply reflect on the event as a symbol of our place in the scale of the universe.
As one commentator has put it: “Though we can predict eclipses with astonishing accuracy, they are created by forces far beyond our control, … Eclipses remind us of our place in the universe.”
Bishkek