Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1918-05-31

~. the oarth's surface: in some places
i, is total and al Others partial. In
an eclipse of the moon, however.
that satellite ceases wholly or III
part to be Illuminated by the sun
h.catis" IL then passes through TIL"
shadow Of tn" earth, and this aspec;
>. the moon j. th" sam. for all tn,
inhar,:ant OF the terrestrial hemis-
ph.r" Whrrr Ia" lnuJn i above III
horizon.
we understand frun this" h.
cu,S on in On" Of his astronomical
t.XtbuukS. "ihI' the calculations ui
an ,clip>" Of tn" moon p"rsrnt fewer
complications than ina, of an cclip,"
Of IN" .l.n. sine" for III" former W.
have only TO indicate the general
circumstance ut The phenomena.
which ar. the sam" Tor all observer.
Whil" for In" latter the indication
ui tn" general circumstances is far
from suificing. on account of the
differ, aces Of aspect according 10
the region and III" narrowness ut
the 2On" III which the eclipse Is cen
tral 7 he anci"nis. who were far
from knowing the motion of IT,.
moon with as much precision as We
do, had not the means of accurately
predicting cclips"s OF the sun. They
only predicted eclips"s of the moon.
relying on the fact that they are re-
produced periodically, presenting
the same characters. and with the
aaine intervals between them, in tn.
course Of Is years and IL days; SO
that it was sufficient to to have OBJ
served and registered all those which
were produced in similar period
of time to foretell with certainty
'thise which would he produced in
the following period.
Now. on the contrary. with the
much more precise knowledge We
nave OF the moons motion, we are
in a position to calculate and fore
tell for a great number of years, and
even centuries in advance, not only
the general circumstances of eclip-
scs OF the moon. but even the detail
ed course of eclipscs of the sun. We
can even. by a retrospective exami-
nation, give an account of all the
circumstances which an ancient
eclipse should have presented in
such or such a locality. and find III"
precise date of certain historical
events of which the epoch is IA sub
j"ct OF discussion. An eclipse of the
sun is a vcritable rarity for any
place. Herodotus relates that at
the moment of the battle between
the Lydians and tn" Medes IA total
"clipS" OF the sun at once stopped
the Siupciird cOmbatantS and put
an end To tn" war. Til! recently his
iOrians gaze dates of this event from
IN" year i2i before our era down to
III" year I>3; astronomical calcula-
tons. however. prov" that this bat
II" took plac" On May - of the year
1Sj Il. G.
Eclips"s of the sun always han
pen at in' moment of now moon.
and 'clipSrS of the moon at the mo
mcn' Of fun moon This circum-
stance has long ,incc made known
III" rauS" to which th"y arr due. Al
| II" nnii."ii' Ui ncN moon. tine moon.
passing between th" otrth and the
Sun can hid" fru.u our view "A lar
ger or smaller portion of that rudy. |
Al III" moment ot fail moon, on the
contrary. the earth is found bctwncn
n" sun and the moon: il can then
prevent the solar rays from reaching
the latter body. All this is easily
explained.
IT the moon r,volved around the
earth in the sam" plane as the earth
round the sun. il would be cclips.d
in our shadow every full moon. and
II would "cliuSc the sun at every
new Moon. But she passes some
lines abov" and sometimes below
til" con" of IN" shadow and she can
only b" rclipsed when she penetrat.s
into this shadow"