The Study of Astronomy, adapted to the capacities of youth / In twelve familiar dialogues, between a tutor and his pupil: explaining the general phænomena of the heavenly bodies, the theory of the tides, &c.

by teacher of astronomy John Stedman

Pupil. Because the ball prevents the light coming to me.

Tutor. This then represents an eclipse of the sun, which can never happen but when the moon is between the sun and the earth, which must be at the change: for, as light passes in a right line, the sun is hidden to that part of the earth which is under the moon, and therefore he must be eclipsed. If the whole of the sun be obscured by the body of the moon, the eclipse is total: if only a part be darkened, it is a partial eclipse; and so many twelfth parts of the sun’s diameter, as the moon covers, so many digits are said to be eclipsed.

Pupil. May not the word digit be applied to the moon as well as the sun?

Tutor. It may: for it means a twelfth part of the diameter of either the sun, or the moon.

Pupil. As you have now shewn me the cause of an eclipse of the sun, I am anxious to have that of the moon explained.

Tutor. We must again have recourse to your little ball.—Turn yourself round till it is opposite to the candle in a line with your head, and you will see that no light can be thrown on it from the candle, because your head is between them. In like manner the rays of the sun are prevented falling on the moon, by the interposition of the earth: she must therefore be eclipsed.

Pupil. I see it clearly. And as an eclipse of the sun happens when the moon is at change, that of the moon must be when she is at full; for, it is then only the earth’s shadow can fall on the moon, the earth being at no other time between the sun and her.

Tutor. The diameter of the shadow is about three times that of the moon, and consequently the moon must be totally eclipsed whilst she continues in it. On the contrary, the shadow of the moon at an eclipse of the sun, covers so small a part of the earth’s surface, that the sun is totally or centrally eclipsed to but a small part of it; and its duration is very short. But a faint or partial shadow surrounds this darkened shade, in which the sun is more or less eclipsed, as the place is nearer to or farther from its center; this partial shadow is called the penumbra. I have prepared for you a little drawing, representing an eclipse both of the sun and moon, which I think will enable you better to understand what I have been explaining. (Plate IV. Fig. 1 and 2.) In the former, p. p. is the penumbra.

Pupil. In what does a central differ from a total eclipse?