Search metadata Search full text of books Search TV captions Search archived web sites Advanced Search. Four Incredible Eclipses History Never Forgot. As everyone is undoubtedly aware by this point, on August 2. The whole shebang will last about two minutes and 4. In 2. 00. 9, for example, a solar eclipse visible in Southeast Asia set the record for the longest one of the century so far, lasting six minutes and 4. Like most celestial happenings throughout history, eclipses were often interpreted as signs of the apocalypse. Luckily, these pessimistic prognostications never panned out. Instead, people built instruments to better assist their understandings of eclipses and realized they were actually sort of good. In honor of the Great American Solar Eclipse, here are some of the greatest hits over the last few centuries. May 2. 8th, 5. 85 BCEThe Battle of the EclipseIn ancient times, eclipses were sometimes seen as opportunities to communicate with the dead, or more broadly speaking, profoundly spooky events. Statistical Techniques Statistical Mechanics. As everyone is undoubtedly aware by this point, on August 21st, folks across the country will be able to see a total solar eclipsethe first one visible coastto. Hot spots Hot spots Hot spots Hot spots. You have not yet voted on this site If you have already visited the site, please help us classify the good from the bad by voting on this site. But in at least one case, a total solar eclipse helped stop a gruesome war. According to Greek historian Herodotus, two factionsthe Lydians of ancient Turkey, and the Medes of ancient Iranwere fighting over land in the Anatolian peninsula, which is modern day Turkey. It happened right in the middle of a battle between warring nations, the Lydians and the Medes, Bryan Brewer, author of. Eclipse History. Science. Awe., told Gizmodo. The groups had been fighting for more than a decade, but the eclipse quickly brought the battle to a halt. The event, possibly the first solar eclipse to have ended a war, was henceforth known as the battle of the eclipse. Both parties took it as an omen and laid down their weapons and made peace right on the spot, Brewer said. Its worth noting that scholars have pointed out certain inconsistencies in Herodotus account of the eventsfor instance, his narrative suggests that totality occurred in the middle of the day, but the path of the May 2. We may never know exactly how things went down on that fateful day, but suffice to say the events left an impression that lasted through the ages. August 2. 1st, 1. The Eclipse. This upcoming solar eclipse isnt the first to take place on August 2. On that same date in 1. Tycho Brahe to become interested in the stars. Brahe was inspired by the event and would go on to create better instruments for astronomers studying cosmic phenomenon. Young Tycho Brye as a teenager saw it the eclipse, astronomer Jay Pasachoff, who is co curating a gallery of eclipse related artifacts at Art. Center in California, told Gizmodo. The prediction was off by a day, and he resolved that when he grew up, he would make better observations about what was going on. Using the resources he had as a Danish aristocrat, he was able to build the biggest pre telescopic devices of his time and made careful observations. That was eventually what Johannes Kepler used to figure out the laws of planetary orbits. Keplers three laws of planetary motion would become his most influential contribution to the scientific community, since many of his forebears adamantly believed planets moved in a circular orbit. Without Brahes innovation, and in some tangential way, his fascination with that 1. Kepler never would have invented his planetary laws. April 8th, 1. 65. Mirk MondayThis total solar eclipse was known as Mirk Monday, and it horrified those in western Europe who could see it. The word mirk seems to come from the Old Norse word myrkr which literally translates to darkness. My Oregon Drivers License Expired Kentucky here. While we dont know much about the eclipse itself, it appears to have spurred many dystopian descriptions, for example, one text called A Discourse on the Terrible Eclipse of the Sun. This was likely just one of many incidences in which eclipses were seen as signs of the apocalypse. To be fair, the idea of turning off the Sun seemed pretty scary back then. People really didnt understand what was going on and just took eclipses as omens,Pasachoff said. There are books that talk about the negative consequences of this eclipse. But not everyone was terrified. One onlooker, Dr. Wyberg of Carrickfergus, Scotland, waxed poetic about it The Sun was reduced to a very slender crescent of light, the Moon all at once threw herself within the margin of the solar disc with such agility that she seemed to revolve like an upper millstone, affording a pleasant spectacle of rotatory motion. May 2. Einsteins TriumphTheres absolutely no question which was the most important and mind blowing eclipse of all time, and that was the one in 1. Doug Duncan, an astronomer in Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at UC Boulder, told Gizmodo. That was the eclipse we discovered that Einsteins idea that space and time can bend is correct. Einstein had just put forth the idea that gravity can warp the fabric of spacetime four years prior, in his theory of general relativity in 1. The total solar eclipse of 1. Astronomers wanted to catch a beam of light going past the Sun to see if it would bend, Duncan explained. They took pictures of the same part of the sky when the Sun had moved to a different constellation and compared the pattern of the stars. Even something as massive as the sun only bends light a little bit, but nevertheless, when they analyzed their pictures, they found that space bent. This was one of the first good natural opportunities to block out the Sun, and Einsteins theory predicted that light would bend near the edge of it. It did. The eclipse was seen as a triumph over Newtonian physics, which predicted that light would bend at the edge of the Sun, but not as much as Einsteins theory suggested. This ascended Einstein to celebrity status and left much of the scientific community, as one New York Times headline suggested, agog.