Abstract
THE ECLIPSE OF THUCYDIDES, B.C. 431, AUGUSTS.—There has been much discussion from time to time with reference to the solar eclipse recorded by Thucydides in the first year of the Peloponnesian war, and long identified as that which occurred on August 3, B c. 431. We are told, “the sun was eclipsed after midday, and having assumed a crescent forn, some of the stars having also appeared, it again became fall-orbed.” This eclipse was not total, as has been frequently stated, but narrowly annular. Dr. Hart wig in 1859 calculated the circumstances according to the solar and lunar tables of Hansen, and his results were published, with those applying to other eclipses mentioned by Thucydides, in No. 1203 of Astronomische Nachrichten. The greatest phase, by his calculations, falls at 5h. 9m. mean time at Athens, and the magnitude of the eclipse is 0.75, rather small, it will be considered, for stars to have been brought into view. But, when all the conditions of the case are borne in mind, it would appear quite possible, to speak within bounds, that Hansen's longitude of the moon may require at that epoch a correction which would suffice, with the rapid descent of the central line in latitude, to cause a great eclipse at Athens, leaving the sun of crescent form, as Thucydides reports, but with the crescent very narrow. In such a climate bright planets and stars might well have been discerned. Venus was westward at an altitude of some 35°, Mars would be near the western horizon, Jupiter had set, while Saturn was near the meridian at an altitude of something like 45°. Of the stars, Spica, Arcturus, Antares, and Vega were in favourable positions for observation.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 31, 91 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/031091a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031091a0