Customer Reviews

Eclipse: The Celestial Phenomenon That Changed the Course of History

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This is an unusually comprehensive book about lunar and solar eclipses. I only wish that the book were a larger format and contained color illustrations instead of just black and white.

The book is relatively small at 7.25 x 5.25 inches, and so the illustrations are quite small. The only color photo is on the cover jacket, which is a shame. I recognize a number of the B&W illustrations, and so I know that the originals were in color.

Despite its shortcomings, this book is a welcome addition to my eclipse library.

Steel melds his knowledge of history and science in a highly readable book. To propel his discussion of celestial bodies, he uses the fuel of such stories as:

* Einstein's theory of relativity as vindicated by an Eclipse
* Alexander's defeat of Darius the day after an eclipse in 331 BC.
* The bible's use of moon language, speaking of days where the moon will be darkened (some kind of eclipse?)

With facts like this, Steel keeps us following a provocative discussion of the moon and its cycles. The history lessons are interspersed with scientific facts so that after a while one doesn't know if he is reading a history book or a science novel.

As the author points out, the Eclipse as a phenomena in the sky held special cultic meaning for the Ancient Near Eastern religions (esp. the Egyptians). But one is left wondering if Steel is accurate at all points of history. For example, when arguing from the Bible about supposed eclipse accounts therein, he sees the story Abraham as alluding to one, "And when the sun was going down...great darkness fell upon him." Because he sees this text as an eclipse, he dates the time of Abraham to 9 May 1533 BC 6:30pm. What is interesting in this is that there is an actual internet database maintained by NASA that allows the author (and us!) to track all eclipses for all time. Indeed, there was an eclipse visible in Jerusalem in 1533, but does that mean that the text in question is talking about an eclipse? Steel may be misreading the biblical data, but it is only a small distraction from his great book.

It should be noted, Steel's book is not only about the moon, but about all of the celestial bodies and man's reaction to their appearances (Mars, comets, famous meteor storms, etc.).

This book is a good introduction for the novice about such things as "blue moons", "the diamond ring" affect, eclipses in general, the calendar and the moon, and other such relevant topics.

I first heard of Duncan Steel when he was interviewed on NPR in June of 2002; the audio of that was once available on the internet.

I got this book as a Christmas gift, after which it sat on my shelf unread for years, only occasionally glanced at. Yet, on some whim I picked it up, started reading, and was hooked at once, and soon wondered why I didn't do this a long time ago.

I've read quite a few astronomy books in my day (and browsed many more), and found none quite as nifty as this one: equal parts science, history, and trivia, it's a light and thoroughly engaging read that I recommend for anyone interested in the eclipse phenomenon. Serious enthusiasts might prefer a harder, more mathematically-bent text, but chances are that many newbies will come away from this book feeling they could write about eclipses themselves, and they might be half-right.

A keeper.

Eclipses have long been perceived as portentous events and have affected world cultural development, from the onset or cessation of battles to dates of historic decisions. This blends science with history as astronomer Steel explains how eclipses occur, their history, and their influence on human lives. Black and white illustrations throughout capture eclipse history and drama.

This book is all about history, wars, and the involvement of eclipses within them. Eclipses are kinda-sorta predictable. The ancients used eclipses as a useful part of their lives. What I like about this book is that it catches the imagination of the eclipse viewer and simple calculations in the appendix.

Contrary to what you see in the book and here, the 1919 eclipse evidence was actually more "believing is seeing". As William Corliss wrote:

"On the day of the eclipse, Principe was bedevilled by clouds, and only 2 photographic plates were deemed marginally acceptable. At Sobral, 18 poor plates and 8 better plates were obtained. The problem was that the 18 poor plates yielded a deflection of starlight much smaller than predicted by Relativity, while the 8 better plates produced a much higher value. By adding the 2 plates from Principe to the mix, Eddington managed to come up with a number close to that required by the Theory of Relativity. It was not the clear-cut victory for Einstein that the textbooks proclaim. Yet the spin was on!"['Science Frontiers', William R. Corliss, #126, Nov-Dec 1999]

Steel is in the camp of Clube and Napier, and as he badmouthed Velikovsky at least once in print I'm reluctant to review this book or anything else he's written. Still, as an introduction to the astronomical / astrological impact made on ancient societies, this book is probably a good choice. Steel has been involved in the search for asteroids on collision courses with the Earth, but his interest in Clube and Napier seems to have resulted in a certain amount of being held at arm's length. I noticed this in a David Morrison review of Steel's "Rogue Asteroids".

I have plenty of objections to using eclipses to date anything. More to the point, everyone should have at least some reservations:

"At 8.45 on the morning of 15 April 136 BC, Babylon was plunged into darkness when the Moon passed in front of the Sun. An astrologer, who recorded the details in cuneiform characters on a clay tablet, wrote: "At 24 degrees after sunrise-a solar eclipse. When it began on the southwest side, Venus, Mercury and the normal stars were visible. Jupiter and Mars, which were in their period of disappearance, became visible. The Sun threw off the shadow from southwest to northeast." If present-day astronomers use a computer to run the movements of the Earth, Moon and Sun backwards from their present positions, like a movie in reverse, they find something very odd. The total eclipse of 15 April 136 BC should not have been visible from Babylon at all." ['In the shadow of the Moon', New Scientist, 30 January 1999]

The rather more expensive "Historical Eclipses and Earths Rotation" by F. Richard Stephenson makes a good subsequent read, and is the source of the information in the above quote. Steel's book will make a decent introduction to the eclipse topic also, but remember to take it with a grain of salt.