The Eclipses from Struyk were observed: those from Ricciolus calculated: the following from L’Art de verifier les Dates, are only those which are visible in Europe for the present century: those which are total are marked with a T; and M signifies Morning, A Afternoon.

329. I have not cited one half of Ricciolus’s list of potentous Eclipses; and for the same reason that he declines giving any more of them than what that list contains: namely, that ’tis most disagreeable to dwell any longer on such nonsense, and as much as possible to avoid tiring the reader: the superstition of the antients may be seen by the few here copied. My author farther says, that there were treatises written to shew against what regions the malevolent effects of any particular Eclipse was aimed: and the writers affirmed, that the effects of an Eclipse of the Sun continued as many years as the Eclipse lasted hours; and that of the Moon as many months.

330. Yet such idle notions were once of no small advantage to Christopher Columbus; who, in the year 1493, was driven on the island of Jamaica, where he was in the greatest distress for want of provisions, and was moreover refused any assistance from the inhabitants; on which he threatened them with a plague, and that in token of it there should be an Eclipse: which accordingly fell on the day he had foretold, and so terrified the Barbarians, that they strove who should be first in bringing him all sorts of provisions; throwing them at his feet, and imploring his forgiveness. Ricciolus’s Almagest, Vol. I. 1. v. c. ii.

331. Eclipses of the Sun are more frequent than of the Moon, because the Sun’s ecliptic limits are greater than the Moon’s § 317: yet we have more visible Eclipses of the Moon than of the Sun, because Eclipses of the Moon are seen from all parts of that Hemisphere of the Earth which is next her, and equally great to each of these parts; but the Sun’s Eclipses are visible only to that small portion of the Hemisphere next him whereon the Moon’s shadow falls; as shall be explained by and by at large.

332. The Moon’s Orbit being elliptical, and the Earth in one of its focuses, she is once at her least distance from the Earth, and once at her greatest in every Lunation. When the Moon changes at her least distance from the Earth, and so near the Node that her dark shadow falls on the Earth, she appears big enough to cover the whole ^[75]Disc of the Sun from that part on which her shadow falls; and the Sun appears totally eclipsed there, as at A, for some minutes: But when the Moon changes at her greatest distance from the Earth, and so near the Node that her dark shadow is directed towards the Earth, her diameter subtends a less angle than the Sun’s; and therefore she cannot hide his whole Disc from any part of the Earth, nor does her shadow reach it at that time; and to the place over which the point of her shadow hangs, the Eclipse is annular as at B; the Sun’s edge appearing like a luminous ring all around the body of the Moon. When the Change happens within 17 degrees of the Node, and the Moon at her mean distance from the Earth, the point of her shadow just touches the Earth, and she eclipseth the Sun totally to that small spot whereon her shadow falls; but the darkness is not of a moment’s continuance.

333. The Moon’s apparent diameter when largest exceeds the Sun’s when least only 1 minute 38 seconds of a degree: And in the greatest Eclipse of the Sun that can happen at any time and place, the total darkness continues no longer than whilst the Moon is going 1 minute 38 seconds from the Sun in her Orbit; which is about 3 minutes and 13 seconds of an hour.

334. The Moon’s dark shadow covers only a spot on the Earth’s surface, about 180 English miles broad, when the Moon’s diameter appears largest and the Sun’s least; and the total darkness can extend no farther than the dark shadow covers. Yet the Moon’s partial Shadow or Penumbra may then cover a circular space 4900 miles in diameter, within all which the Sun is more or less eclipsed as the places are less or more distant from the Center of the Penumbra. When the Moon changes exactly in the Node, the Penumbra is circular on the Earth at the middle of the general Eclipse; because at that time it falls perpendicularly on the Earth’s surface: But at every other moment it falls obliquely, and will therefore be elliptical; and the more so, as the time is longer before or after the middle of the general Eclipse; and then, much greater portions of the Earth’s surface are involved in the Penumbra.