Starship Asterisk*

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090125.html
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http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html
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Ho and Hi, the Drunk Astronomers
-2136 Oct 22 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.974 02m52s

"Here lie the bodies of Ho and Hi Whose fate though sad was visible,
Being hanged because they could not spy Th'eclipse which was invisible."
- Author unknown
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China's 'Double-Dawn' Eclipse
-0898 Apr 21 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.959 03m05s
"During the first year of the reign of King Yi, in the first month of spring, the sun rose twice at Zheng." - the Bamboo Annals
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Xerxes' Eclipse
-0479 Oct 02 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.932 07m58s
"...while he was offering sacrifice to know if he should march
out against the Persian, the sun was suddenly darkened in mid sky"
from Herodotus, History, IX, 10 Wikipedia
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Peloponnesian War
-0430 Aug 03 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.984 01m04s
". . . the sun assumed the shape of a crescent and became full again,
and during the eclipse some stars became visible." - Thucydides

"Oldest European record of a verifiable solar eclipse (annular)-
-by the Greek historian Thucydides"
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8th Year of Peloponnesian War
-0423 Mar 21 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.943 04m38s
"In first days of the next summer there was an eclipse of the sun
at the time of new moon, and in the early part of the same month an
earthquake." from The History of the Peloponnesian War Wikipedia
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Firmicus's Eclipse
0334 Jul 17 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.976 02m23s

"Firmicus (Sicily) is first to report solar prominences,
seen during an annular eclipse"
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http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090125.html
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http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html
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Death of Mohammad's Son Ibrahim
0632 Jan 27 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.984 01m40s
"When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred,
and rumours of God's personal condolence quickly arose."
- from Prayers of Muhammad

<<One of the most important historical solar eclipses is that of the annular solar eclipse of 27 January 632. It was visible in Medina during the lifetime of Prophet Mohammad, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH), and coincided with the death of his little son Ibrahim. The Prophet stated explicitly and definitely that the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon are not bad omens, but are cosmic spectacles that demonstrate the might and knowledge of Allah the Great.>>
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Jean de Murs Eclipse
1337 Mar 03 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.954 04m32s

"Solar eclipse observed by Jean de Murs in St. Germain des Pres. He notes that there was a large error between the observed time and the time given by the Alphonsine tables and said that it is "necessary to quickly correct" the tables."
- Dr. John Steele
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Captain Cook's Eclipse
1766 Aug 05 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.943 05m15s
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Nat Turner's Eclipse
1831 Feb 12 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.981 01m57s
<<Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an American slave who led the slave rebellion that resulted in the most fatalities in the antebellum southern United States. He gathered supporters in Southampton County, Virginia. On February 12, 1831, an annular solar eclipse was seen in Virginia. Nat saw this as a Black man's hand reaching over the sun and took this as his sign. The rebellion was initially planned for July 4, Independence Day, but was postponed due to deliberation between him and his followers, and illness. On August 13, there was an atmospheric disturbance, another solar eclipse, in which the sun appeared bluish-green (possibly from debris deposited in the atmosphere by an eruption of Mount St. Helens). Nat took this as the final signal, and a week later, on August 21, the rebellion began.
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Baily's Beads
1836 May 15 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.951 04m47s
1836 May 15 - Baily's Beads

"Francis Baily (United Kingdom), during an annular eclipse in Scotland, calls attention to the brief bright beads of light that appear close to totality as the Sun's disk is blocked except for sunlight streaming through lunar valleys along the limb. This phenomenon becomes known as Baily's Beads"
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Zulu War Eclipse
1879 Jan 22 Annular Eclipse Magnitude: 0.970 03m03s
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Hello,

This is my first post, however I have been viewing APOD for several years. I use a program called Celestia http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ (some of you may know it). I used it to today to view the eclipse as it traveled across the Indian Ocean.

Celestia also has earth satellites in it and I noticed two moving objects crossing close to the eclipse. They turned out to be Hubble and the International Space Station (ISS) getting about 666 km within each other. Here is a image of what I saw.



The shadow is a little below the center with the orbit lines of the satellites and labels. If you look in the upper corners of the image you can read viewing distance and time (pacific) that this occurred. Maybe we will see some amazing images from these two satellites of the eclipse in the next few days?

Don

This photo, while strikingly beautiful, is a bit suspicious to me. Notice how the sun goes below the "horizon" in the background. And the tree...it is amazing how light coming from the background (the sun) would allow it to look like anything but a silhouette. Fact is, the green from the tree would only show up if it were front-lighted. It appears this is a composite of 3 images superimposed to look like a spectacular and well-timed shot. Sorry guys, but I think it is clearly a fake.