Solar Eclipse March 20th 2015

• Never look at the sun directly - you have no pain receptors in your retina!
• Always use proper solar filters
• Don't look at the sun for more than 3 minutes at a time.
• Look away from the sun before removing glasses - don't try to stop the sun first and then put on the glasses!

Eclipses have been seen as portents of significant events in history from the crucifixion of Christ to the death of Henry I. They evoke awe and wonder in those observing them, with changes in temperature, the silencing of animals and a dark shadow racing across the land. Milton described the event in Samsom Agnosites as “O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse without all hope of day!”

Shortly after Milton had penned this line, the mechanism of eclipses was explained by Newton’s law of universal gravitation which built upon the work of Kepler and Galileo and explained the orbital motion of planets. Far from being a mysterious event, the process is now firmly rooted in science and nowadays, rather than an eclipse evoking terror, it can be predicted with similarly terrifying accuracy. As Carl Sagan mentioned in his book Demon-Haunted World, “If you want to know when the next eclipse of the Sun will be, you might try magicians or mystics, but you'll do much better with scientists."

Films which feature eclipses

7 famous solar eclipses

Einstein's Eclipse (1919)

Early Chinese Eclipse

The Birth of Mohammed

Ugarit Eclipse

One of the earliest solar eclipses recorded, the Ugarit eclipse darkened the sky for two minutes and seven seconds in 1374 B.C. Mesopotamian historians in Ugarit, a port city in Northern Syrian, recount that the sun was "put to shame" during this total eclipse.

While the ancients viewed eclipses as signs of great acts of God, physicists viewed the 1919 solar eclipse as a triumph of science. During 1919's epic eclipse, in which the sun vanished for six minutes and 51 seconds, Sir Arthur Eddington measured the bending of light from the stars as they passed near the sun. The findings confirmed Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes gravity as a warping of space-time.

In 1302 B.C., Chinese historians documented an epic total eclipse that blocked out the sun for six minutes and 25 seconds. Because the sun was a symbol of the emperor, an eclipse was seen as a warning to the leader. After an eclipse, an emperor would eat vegetarian meals and perform rituals to rescue the sun, according to a 2003 study in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage

The Koran mentions an eclipse that preceded the birth of Mohammed. Historians later tied this to a total eclipse that lasted three minutes and 17 seconds in 569 C.E. The sun also disappeared for one minute and 40 seconds after the death of Mohammed's son Ibrahim. But the world's first Muslim didn't believe that eclipse was a sign from God. Instead, according to Islamic texts called the Hadiths, Mohammed proclaimed "the sun and the moon do not suffer eclipse for any one's death or life."

Further Information

http://www.wired.com/2009/05/dayintech_0529/

King Henry's Eclipse (1133)

Assyrian Eclipse

Crucifixion of Christ

In 763 B.C., the Assyrian empire, which occupied what is now Iraq, the sun was completely eclipsed for five minutes. Early records from the period mention the eclipse in the same passage as an insurrection in the city of Ashur, suggesting that the ancient people linked the two in their minds.

When King Henry I of England, the son of William the Conqueror, died in 1133, the event coincided with a total solar eclipse that lasted four minutes and 38 seconds. A history by William of Malmesbury recounts that the "hideous darkness" agitated the hearts of men. After the death, a struggle for the throne threw the kingdom into chaos and civil war.

The Christian gospels say that the sky was darkened for hours after the crucifixion of Jesus, which historians viewed either as a miracle or a portent of dark times to come. Using astronomy, later historians have used this mention to pinpoint the death of Christ. Some historians tie the crucifixion to a one minute 59 second total solar eclipse that occurred in the year 29 C.E., while others say a second total eclipse, blocking the sun for four minutes and six second, in 33 C.E. marked Jesus' death.

2001 Space Odyssey

Apocalypto

Barabbas (1961)

http://www.livescience.com/24743-famous-solar-eclipses-history.html

Director Richard Fleischer delayed the shooting of the crucifixion scene in order to use a real total solar eclipse as background

Tintin - Prisoners Of The Sun

Eclipses explained

BBC Live coverage

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse

Without all hope of day!”

-John Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671)

http://goo.gl/ADLkfF

What will we see in London?

Fun Videos....

Eclipse on Mars

How to view the eclipse safely

Eclipse From Space

The sweeping shadow

Curiosity Rover snaps Mars solar eclipse by Mars moon Phobos

Making solar glasses

Safety

Partial Solar Eclipse

20th March 2015

Eclipse Calculator:

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/uk/london?iso=20150320