Historically significant lunar eclipses
Historical Lunar eclipses are eclipses of the Moon that are mention in history in the connection to a significant historic event. Lunar eclipses are rare events. Through the history they were responsible for lost battles, and amazing rescues. Before the mechanism behind the eclipses was understood superstitions and legends surrounded the bloody looking eclipsed Moon. Some people believed that during an eclipse the Moon is getting eaten by a dragon. Some even tried to kill that dragon. It did not matter, if few people were killed in the process. The most important thing was to save the Moon. [1]
The first mention of the Lunar eclipse was found in Chinese book Zhou-Shu, the book of Zhou Dynasty. The book was found in 280 AD in a tomb of Emperor. The eclipse mentioned in this book took place many centuries before. Professor S.M. Russell believes that the eclipse described in the book may refer to the event that happened on January 29, 1136 BC.[2][3]
Lunar eclipse on October 9 425 BC
When eclipses were not well understood they were associated with unnatural forces sometimes. Witches from the Greek region of Thessaly claimed the ability to extinguish the moon's light and draw it down from the sky. In his famous comedy The Clouds (423 BC) Aristophanes describes the eclipse that took place two years prior.[4]
the moon deserted her course and the sun at once veiled his beam threatening, no longer to give you light, if Cleon became general...[5]
Lunar eclipse on August 28 413 BC
This eclipse happened during Second Battle of Syracuse. Just as the Athenians were preparing to sail home, there was a lunar eclipse, and Nicias, described by Thucydides as a particularly superstitious man, asked the priests what he should do. They suggested the Athenians wait for another twenty-seven days, and Nicias agreed. The Syracusans took advantage of this, and seventy-six of their ships attacked eighty-six Athenian ships in the harbor. The Athenians were defeated and Eurymedon was killed. Many of the ships were pushed on to the shore, where Gylippus was waiting. He killed some of the crews and captured eighteen beached ships, but a force of Athenians and Etruscans forced Gylippus back.[4] Plutarch described the eclipse and the superstition
And when all were in readiness, and none of the enemy had observed them, not expecting such a thing, the moon was eclipsed in the night, to the great fright of Nicias and others, who, for want of experience, or out of superstition, felt alarm at such appearances.[6]
The battle was lost because of the Lunar eclipse.
Lunar eclipse on March 1 1504
Astronomie Populaire 1879, p231 fig. 86
Christopher Columbus got stranded in Jamaica on June 25, 1503, when he beached his two last caravels. At first the natives welcomed Columbus and his crew, but when in 6 months there was still no sign of them leaving the island, and some crew members were robbing and murdering the natives, the tension rose. Columbus happened to have an almanac of astronomical tables covering the years 1475-1506 by Regiomontanus. This almanac came to his men and his rescue by providing the date and the time of incoming Lunar eclipse. Columbus requested the meeting with Cacique ("chief") and told him that his Christian God was angry with his people's treatment of Columbus and his men. Columbus promised that his God will provide a clear sign of his displeasure by making the rising fool Moon appear "inflamed with wrath". When the Moon rose that night, the lower part of it was missing, and some time later the bloody looking Moon provided no more light. The natives were terrified. The son of Columbus Ferdinand wrote:
with great howling and lamentation came running from every direction to the ships laden with provisions, praying to the Admiral to intercede with his god on their behalf...
When the Moon started to reaper from the shadow, Columbus declared to natives that his God pardoned them. [7]
Later Mark Twain used the real story of the wonderful rescue of Columbus in his "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". In this novel Hank Morgan, a 19th-century resident of Hartford, Connecticut who, after a blow to the head, awakens to find himself inexplicably transported back in time to early medieval England at the time of the legendary King Arthur. When Morgan is about to be burned at the stake, he predicts Solar eclipse that he knew was about to happen. This prediction saved Morgan's life.[7]
Lunar eclipse on July 15 1916
The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Five men got stranded not far away from Cape Evans. There was sea ice between them and relative safety of the hut on Cape Evans. On 8 May two of the men Aeneas Mackintosh and Victor Hayward decided to go for it. Soon after they left the blizzard hit. When the weather cleared up, remaining men went to look for them, and realized that the ice was way too thin to cross, and that their friends were lost. Now they knew that they should wait for a thicker ice and for the full Moon to attempt the crossing. Having the full Moon was important. During Polar night the Moon is the only source of the natural light. The weather did not cooperate during Full Moon in June, but on July 15 everything seemed to be just right: calm weather, thick ice and the full Moon. The men started on their journey in the morning. When the Moon rose the men were surprised to find out it was about to be eclipsed. Ernest Wild wrote later:
I thought we were going to be left in darkness but a very little bit of the rim remained to light us...
Although the eclipse continued for few hours the men got lucky because it was a partial eclipse. They reached Cape Evans later on the same day.[8]
References
- ^ Joe Rao. "A Wisdom Archive on Lunar Eclipse". Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ Russell (1895). "The Observatory, Volume 18 By NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service". TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. p. 431. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ George Frederick Chambers (1902). "The story of eclipses simply told for general readers". D. Appleton and Co. p. 168. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ a b Fred Espenak. "Lunar Eclipses of Historical Interest". Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ Aristophanes (423 BC). "[[The Clouds]]". Retrieved 2010-04-28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help); URL–wikilink conflict (help) - ^ Plutarch, John Dryden (1876). "Plutarch's Lives of illustrious men: Corrected from the Greek and revised". Little, Brown, & Co.'s Werks of General Literature. p. 880. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ a b Joe Rao. "How a Lunar Eclipse Saved Columbus". Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ Richard McElrea, David L. Harrowfield (2004). "Polar castaways: the Ross Sea Party (1914-17) of Sir Ernest Shackleton". Canterbury University Press. p. 206. Retrieved 2010-04-28.