Editing Eclipse (section)

===Historical record===
[[File:Les parisiens pendant l'éclipse du 28 Juillet.jpg|alt=|left|thumb|This print shows Parisians watching the solar eclipse of July 28, 1851|262x262px]]
Records of solar eclipses have been kept since ancient times. Eclipse dates can be used for [[chronological dating]] of historical records. A [[Syria]]n clay tablet, in the Ugaritic language, records a solar eclipse which occurred on March 5, 1223, B.C.,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=de Jong |first1=T. |last2=van Soldt |first2=W. H. |title=The earliest known solar eclipse record redated |journal=Nature |date=1989 |volume=338 |issue=6212 |pages=238–240 |doi=10.1038/338238a0 |bibcode=1989Natur.338..238D |s2cid=186243477 | quote=The new translation runs as follows: (Obverse) "On the ... day of the new moon in [the month] ''ḫiyaru'' the Sun went down, its gate-keeper was ''Ršp''". (Reverse) "Two livers were examined: danger". [...] As pointed out by Sawyer and Stephenson, ''Ršp'' is probably to be identified with the planet Mars. [...] Of the candidate eclipses [...], the one occurring on 5 March 1223 BC is the only one during which the plant Mars was above the horizon. }}</ref> while Paul Griffin argues that a stone in Ireland records an eclipse on November 30, 3340 B.C.<ref>{{cite web
 |last        = Griffin
 |first       = Paul
 |date        = 2002
 |url         = http://www.astronomy.ca/3340eclipse/
 |title       = Confirmation of World's Oldest Solar Eclipse Recorded in Stone
 |publisher   = The Digital Universe
 |access-date  = 2007-05-02
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070409070529/http://www.astronomy.ca/3340eclipse/
 |archive-date = 2007-04-09
}}</ref> Positing classical-era astronomers' use of Babylonian eclipse records mostly from the 13th century BC provides a feasible and mathematically consistent<ref><!--

-->See [http://www.dioi.org/vols/wg0.pdf DIO 16] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726000734/http://www.dioi.org/vols/wg0.pdf |date=2011-07-26 }} p.2 (2009). Though those Greek and perhaps Babylonian astronomers who determined the three previously unsolved lunar motions were spread over more than four centuries (263 BC to 160 AD), the math-indicated early eclipse records are all from a [http://www.dioi.org/thr.htm#ufnr much smaller span] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402105220/http://www.dioi.org/thr.htm |date=2015-04-02 }}: the 13th century BC. The anciently attested Greek technique: use of eclipse cycles, automatically providing integral ratios, which is how all ancient astronomers' lunar motions were expressed. Long-eclipse-cycle-based reconstructions precisely produce all of the 24 digits appearing in the three attested ancient motions just cited: 6247 synod = 6695 anom (System A), 5458 synod = 5923 drac (Hipparchos), 3277 synod = 3512 anom (Planetary Hypotheses). By contrast, the System B motion, 251 synod = 269 anom (Aristarchos?), could have been determined without recourse to remote eclipse data, simply by using a few eclipse-pairs 4267 months apart.<!--

--></ref> explanation for the Greek finding all three lunar mean motions (synodic, anomalistic, draconitic) to a precision of about one part in a million or better. Chinese historical records of solar eclipses date back over 3,000 years and have been used to measure changes in the Earth's rate of spin.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.bibalex.org/eclipse2006/HistoricalObservationsofSolarEclipses.htm
 |title       = Solar Eclipses in History and Mythology
 |publisher   = Bibliotheca Alexandrina
 |access-date  = 2007-05-02
 }}</ref>

The first person to give scientific explanation on eclipses was [[Anaxagoras]] [c500BC - 428BC].<ref>{{Citation |last=Curd |first=Patricia |title=Anaxagoras |date=2019 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/anaxagoras/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |access-date=2023-08-18 |edition=Winter 2019 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}}</ref> Anaxagoras stated that the Moon shines by  reflected light from the Sun.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anaxagoras - Biography |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Anaxagoras/ |access-date=2023-08-18 |website=Maths History |language=en}}</ref>

In 5th century AD, solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by [[Aryabhata]], in his treatise ''[[Aryabhatiya]].''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aryabhata {{!}} Achievements, Biography, & Facts {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aryabhata-I|access-date=2021-12-25|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref> Aryabhata states that the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight and explains eclipses in terms of shadows cast by and falling on Earth. Aryabhata provides the computation and the size of the eclipsed part during an eclipse. Indian computations were very accurate that 18th-century French scientist [[Guillaume Le Gentil]], during a visit to Pondicherry, India, found the Indian computations of the duration of the [[lunar eclipse]] of 30 August 1765 to be short by only 41 seconds, whereas Le Gentil's charts were long by 68 seconds.

By the 1600s, European astronomers were publishing books with diagrams explaining how lunar and solar eclipses occurred.<ref>{{cite book|last=Girault|first=Simon|title=Globe dv monde contenant un bref traite du ciel & de la terra|date=1592|location=Langres, France|page=Fol. 8V}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hevelius|first=Johannes|title=Observatio Eclipseos Solaris Gedani|date=1652|location=Danzig, Poland}}</ref> In order to disseminate this information to a broader audience and decrease fear of the consequences of eclipses, booksellers printed broadsides explaining the event either using the science or via astrology.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stephanson|first1=Bruce |last2=Bolt|first2=Marvin |last3=Friedman|first3=Anna Felicity |title=The Universe Unveiled: Instruments and Images through History|date=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=978-0521791434|pages=32–33}}</ref>