Astronomy of To-day

h March, 721 B.C., and was observed from Babylon. For our knowledge of this eclipse we are indebted to Ptolemy, the a

e some three hundred years later, namely, in 425 B.C. This eclipse was obs

tly frightened Nicias, the general of the Athenians, then warring in Sicily, as to cau

year of the Peloponnesian War-there took place another t

ble that the eclipse in question was the total lunar one, which calculation shows to have taken place on the 15th September 5 B.C., and to have been visible in Western Asia. This

od." On the other hand, in an account of the eclipse of January 23, A.D. 753, our satellite is described as "covered with a horrid black shield." We thus ha

is that of the 19th March 1848, when the illumination of our satellite was so great that many persons could not believe that an eclipse was actually taking place. A certain Mr. Foster, who observed this eclipse from Bruges, states that the markings on t

appeared so completely, that it could not be discovered even with the telescope. Another such instance is the eclipse of June 10, 1816, observed from London. The summer of

visible. An instance of this occurred in the eclipse of July 12, 1870, when the late Rev. S.J. Johnson, one of the leading authorities on e

ove, there are three total lunar ecl

ss of this eclipse the moon occulted the st

tives having refused to supply him with provisions when in sore straits, he announced to them that the moon would be darkened as a sign of

hrough the telescope, then a recent invention. It was without doubt the first