TOTAL ECLIPSE OF MOON ON SATURDAY

Chronicle (Levin), 11 June 1946, Page 4

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF MOON ON SATURDAY

*■ Next Saturday niormng, eonimencing at about .'1.30 a.iu., Ihe moon will be eclipsed. At 7 a.m. it will be totally obsc.ured. The term 'eclipsed' is usually applied to the darke.ning of ii heaveuly body, for eclipses are associatetl with self-luminous bodies and those which shine by reflectel iight. Other bodies which are not selfj Juminous are eclipsed when their Iight which ordinarily niakes them visitde is prevented from reaching Them by some body inlerposing itself between them and the sun, and they thereforei move into a shadow. Therefore, Ihe moon is eclipsed by tlie earth coming | between it and the sun. Jupiter 's j satellites becoine eclipsed as they niove j into Ihe shadow of t he jilanet. Iainar eclipses ahvays take place at full moon or when the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth. Such eclipses are sometimes partial and sonietimes total, but never arrnular, and in their general phases they resemble those of the sun.

It is diilicult, in the face of the simplicitv of this explanation, to imagine ? how deeply eclipses affected men's winds before the dawn of astronomic.tl science. To the ancieuts they . were | without the order of natiiro — terrible | presages of dire events. At .one t'iure ! in Rome it was blasphei'ny and puitish- ' able by law 'to suggest publicly tliat j they were caused naturally. So stfong ; a hold had this superstition on the ; popular mind that even after it beI came to be generallv believed th'at j eclipses of the sun were caused by the : moon coming between the sun and the ' earth, eclipses were still referred to a supernatural ageney. When the | moon was in eclipse tlie peojile turne.d out and made a great noise with brazen , instruments — tlie idea being that by do- ; ing so they gav# the moon great ease from her afl'licfion. Aceording to : some, Luna, when in eclipse, was in the pains of labour, and others said that she was suffering from the arts of wieked magicians. I Similar notions have prevailed among all barbarian tribes. Tlie Chinese popu- ; lace, as is vjvell known imagine eclipses to be caused by great dragons trying to devour tlie sun and moon, and aec.ordingly they terrify the monsters into letting the victim go by beating brass drums and kettles. Several stories are Lold of knowing po-rsons turning these supfTStitious to their own aceounts, among them being the legend of Thales bnnging peace between the Medes and i Lydians, and also of Columbus procuring provisions from the natives of .Tamaica by the predietion of eclipses. The coming eclipse will be visible in New Zealand and Antarctiea.