'No longer will anything seem impossible or marvellous': How an 'immoral, foul-mouthed and violent man' wrote the first eyewitness account of a total solar eclipse​​

In this excerpt from the book "Solar Eclipses" by William Sheehan, we learn of how an ancient Greek poet, who wrote a series of scurrilous songs and deserted the field of battle, became a hero among eclipse-watchers today.

The top 3

  1. Oldest Documented Eclipse Records: The earliest known records of solar eclipses include spiral carvings in Loughcrew Cairns, Ireland, dating to 3340 BCE, and a clay tablet from Ugarit, Syria, with plausible dates of 1375 BC or 1223 BC. Ancient Chinese texts also describe an eclipse in 2137 BCE or 2134 BCE, famously leading to the execution of two astronomers for their failure to predict it.
  2. First Organized Scientific Expeditions: Organized scientific expeditions to observe solar eclipses became more prevalent from the 18th century. Edmond Halley's precise calculations for the 1715 eclipse over England facilitated detailed observations. Captain James Cook documented a total solar eclipse in Newfoundland in 1766, reporting his findings to the Royal Society. The Royal Society actively funded and supported later expeditions, including those for Frank Watson Dyson in 1901 and the crucial 1919 expeditions to test Einstein's theory of relativity.
  3. First Predicted Solar Eclipse: The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus is traditionally credited with the first successful prediction of a solar eclipse, specifically the one on May 28, 585 BCE. This event is said to have interrupted a battle between the Lydians and Medes. While celebrated, the exact method Thales used remains unknown, and modern scholars express some skepticism regarding the precise details of the prediction.

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