Fading Sun... by Milota Sidorova

Nothing there is beyond hope,
nothing that can be sworn impossible,
nothing wonderful, since Zeus,
father of the Olympians,
made night from mid-day,
hiding the light of the shining Sun,
and sore fear came upon men.

I rather start my today's blog with a fragment of a lost poem, written centuries ago by Archilochus, one of thousands Greek soldiers. However referred to Gods or Divines, Archilochus had perfectly depicted rare, although well known phenomena of solar eclipse.
During a history of man, those movements have been always connected with prophecies, signs and had been gaining truly attention. According sources, one of the first dated solar eclipses occurred on October 22, 2134 B.C.E. in China. One must say, that like on the other parts of the world, this heavenly movement has been overloaded by dozen perhaps hundreds of meanings. If we stay in China, soon we get to know, that the movement of the new moon, shading the sun has been considered as a movement of celestial dragon eating the sun. This association has transformed into linguistic and the Chinese term for eclipse was "chih" which also means "to eat".
Darkened day has naturally raised mix of feelings among wide population. People stunned in awe, the frightened animals howled, whilst the Sun had been covered by a mythical monster. How horrible moment this must have been for an ancient man! However, there's been an old habit to make as much noise as possible during the eclipse, that has been survived till now days. People were trying to scat the monster and avoid him from eating the Sun.
Being an astronomer, living near the Emperor those times, was clearly quite a tough job. Solar eclipses have been as attractive as scary events, when considered the whole future of the empire depended on heavenly signs. It wasn't that unusual if astronomer who failed to set the proper date was sent to death.
Now, let's closer more to ancient Europe in 6th century before Christ. May 28th 585 B.C.E. had really changed the future of five years battling Lydians and Medes (Persians). The fading Sun has naturally scared both of the armies, that instead of killing each other, they resulted in a peace treaty, assured by double marriage. That is what I call Deus Ex Machina or kind of a fancy translation & God in action.
However, just hundred years after solar eclipse didn't bring that luck to famous Persian king Xerxes, marching to destroy the Greeks. His magician assured him that the shadows on his side will bring a great victory, but actually it has been Xerxes who was running out of the battle field to retreat.
When assuming, more or less important eclipses, there's no way to forget the one, during Christ's crucifixion. The death of Son of God has been followed with slight earthquake, explaining opening the old graves and tearing down the Holy curtain in Jerusalem Temple.
Making a list of historical eclipses emblazoned with stories would be a work for many decades I guess.
However, to make it shortly, I can say, that solar eclipse was used by Einstein to prove his theory of gravitation, the notes can be key proofs for historians and archaeologists to stick again the mosaic of our ancestors and surely they are very important phenomena to study in association to space order.
And right now, this week, we are standing in front of another one. Total solar eclipse will be visible on Friday morning from Northern part of China, Mongolia, Russia, Greenland and Canada. The Sun will fade at 7:09 a.m EDT for 2 minutes and 27 seconds, although weather forecasts close to 75 percent chance of bad conditions. For those who won't come to see this rare, but still impressive event, there are several websites on-line broadcasting the eclipse.
The next total solar eclipse will appear exactly in year, on 22nd July 2009 over Nepal, India, Bhutan and Pacific region.





related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_sc/solar_eclipse;_ylt=As2ariU0j9XjkNykrD1gENWs0NUE

by Milota Sidorova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.<br><br><font size=2>These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.</font><br>

edited by Beata Biskova