ECLIPSES 17 



AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 



This is the most impressive of the two ecHpses because it shuts 

 us away from the Hght of the sun and gives us a new appreciation of 

 the value of sunHght. It can only occur when the moon is in the 

 new phase and therefore is between us and the sun. The first 

 warning of its approach is a little dark notch on the westward edge 

 of the sun's disc; this gradually moves forward forming a crescent 

 of blackness, until there is but a crescent of light left on the sun's 

 eastern margin. If the eclipse is total, the entire disc will be hid- 

 den from view, and just before this occurs, if w^e have good glasses, 

 we can see the great jagged mountains of the moon outlined 

 against the waning sun-crescent. When the sun is completely 

 hidden, the rosy, subdued light of the sun's corona forms an 

 exquisite ring of light around the black moon disc. This beautiful 

 shining garment of the sun, "the ring with wings" can be observed 

 only during an eclipse. Despite this misty ring, our earth is in 

 total darkness during this phase of a total eclipse, and birds go to 

 roost, the flowers close their petals, the little brothers who are 

 night prowlers or night fliers, the mice and bats and owls, come 

 forth, the sky is full of stars, ignorant people are frightened, and 

 educated people feel subdued because of this impressive phenome- 

 non. A total eclipse is not visible everywhere on the earth but 

 only in a band extending east and west, about 165 miles in width; 

 it appears as a partial eclipse for the distance of about 2,000 miles 

 on either side of this band. A partial eclipse is when the moon is 

 not in direct line between the earth and the sun, and therefore in 

 moving across ,it cuts off only a part of the sun's disc. Sometimes, 

 the moon's disc is not quite large enough to cover that of the sun, 

 depending upon the varying distances apart of the two, and during 

 a total eclipse, a ring of the sun's disc entirely surrounds the moon, 

 and this is called an "annular eclipse." 



There are records in China of an eclipse that occurred 4,000 years 

 ago. One was recorded in Babylon in 1963 B. C. ; many were 

 recorded in Assyria in the following centuries and the Bible also 

 mentions them. Eclipses may be calculated with accuracy for 

 centuries to come. 



