Items related to Eclipse: The Celestial Phenomenon Which Has Changed...
Synopsis
Ever since biblical times, eclipses have caused a sensation. Ancient civilizations saw them as signs of divine displeasure or augurs of good fortune. This work explains eclipses, their science and their significance to humankind.
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Review
Duncan Steel's handsomely produced pocket hardback, illustrated throughout by evocative engravings, illustrations and early photographs, harks back to an era when astronomy was a popular pursuit, and not yet the preserve of computer-laden university departments. It is, essentially, a book of celestial mechanics, using the solar eclipse of August 1999 as a peg from which to hang any number of fascinating astronomical stories: how archaeologists and historians use eclipses to calibrate local calendars; how eclipse cycles can be mapped as woven patterns, revealing their regularity, so that, long before the necessary physical theories were developed, "various individuals of genius, living in societies possessing careful records of past celestial events, were able to interpret those records and deduce the lengths of the years and months to a matter of minutes and seconds"; finally, how findings from eclipses and the occultations of stars by the moon and planets revealed much about the nature of both. There is much of historical, as well as astronomical significance in Duncan Steel's Eclipse. French astronomer Jules Janssen, for example, in 1870 "was so desperate to get to Algeria to observe an eclipse that he escaped from Paris in a balloon, drifting over the heads of the Prussian troops who had the city under seige". --Simon Ings
Review
There was a review of Eclipse in the Independent 15/7
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDiane Pub Co
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 0756761751
- ISBN 13 9780756761752
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages368
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