Week 12 - Eclipse

It was supposed to be “the eclipse of the century”, a very rare event. In all honesty I do not know what all this fuss was about. It is not uncommon for clouds to hide the sun in the sky of London! It happens multiple times every week if not in the same day! We were lucky enough to see the sun in the afternoon. Why all this complaining! Oh, you say that on March 20^th you were supposed to see the moon, not the clouds, covering the sun? I see…so that is why at 9.30 am it was darker than usual. I would never have guessed by looking out of the window. This was London’s Sky that morning:

 

Well, I guess the only thing you can do, other than watching the eclipse on live streaming on your PC, is finding out some curious facts about eclipses.

1)     The last solar eclipse that happened on the day of the spring equinox was on March 20^th 1662. The next one will be in 2034.

2)     On average, there are no less than 2 and no more than 5 solar eclipses per year. If you are at the North or South Poles, you cannot view a total solar eclipse.

3)     The corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun, can only be seen during a total solar eclipse.

4)     Because the Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth, in about a million years a solar eclipse will not even be noticeable. Though despair not! Before that happens we might see (clouds permitting) the one on 12 August 2026; which is total across Iceland, the Atlantic Ocean and Spain and results in a very large partial eclipse across Britain with western Ireland the most favoured, at around 95% falling to 83% in London

5)     In 1504 Cristoforo Colombo, who was aware that a lunar eclipse would occur, took advantage of it to seek and obtain the help of the indios of Jamaica. He pretended to pray God asking Him to show “these savages” how powerful He was by obscuring the moon.

Many legends, myths and beliefs surrounds this astronomical phenomenon. Eclipses were thought to be a sign that the Gods were angry and bad things were about to happen. Science has dismantle these beliefs explaining how and why the solar eclipses happen, leaving no space for superstitions. Though there is an African legend about eclipses that would be useful, if everyone would believe it. For Togo and Benin inhabitants eclipses are fights between sun and moon. The only way to stop them fighting is to solve whatever disagreement people are fighting for on Earth. This way we could live peacefully at least for one day every once in a while.