a metallic solar atmosphere extending some ten millions of miles 

 in space. It is the most sublime spectacle ever presented to the 

 eyes of man. 



Eclipses, Past and Future 



The shepherd-astronomers in Mesopotamia of old. while 

 watching their flocks at night under cloudless skies, had become 

 acquainted with some valuable astronomical facts. They had 



observed that the sun, moon 

 and "the wandering stars" 

 (the planets) follow the 

 same path in the heavens, a 

 belt fourteen degrees wide, 

 which they called the Zo- 

 diac. They had discovered 

 that when the movements 

 of the sun and moon were 

 along the center of that belt, 

 eclipses occurred ; hence the 

 name ecliptic. But, most 

 wonderful of all, they knew- 

 from experience that 

 eclipses repeat themselves 

 every 18 years, 11 days and 

 8 hours. 'Thales, the Greek 

 philosopher, who had been 

 taught by the Egyptian 

 priests and Chaldean sooth- 

 sayers, was thus able to 

 foretell the total eclipse of 

 the sun. May 28, 585 B. C. 

 Herodotus relates that this 

 classic eclipse occurred during a battle between the Lydians and 

 Medes, and that the combatants became so stupefied _ that the 

 battle stopped at once and put an end to the war. Cicero and 

 Pliny make like statements. 



Explanation of a Total Eclipse oe the Sun 



The Sim and moon are apparently the same size in the sky, 

 and as their motions are along the same plane, the moon some- 

 times intervenes and cuts off the view of the sun. The moon 

 being a solid body casts a shadow, which is cone-shaped and 

 sometimes long enough to reach the earth. As the earth is 

 turning on its axis this shadow, about fifty miles broad, drags 

 over the surface of the earth. People situated at the time within 

 the path of the shadow in looking up behold the sun eclipsed. 



_ Battle between the Medes and Lydians, 

 arrested by an eclipse of tbe sun. May 28, 



585 B. C. 



