cted for
June 29, 1927. It has been already alluded to as the first of those in
the future to be _total_ in England. The central line will stretch from
Wales in a north-easterly direction. Stonyhurst Observatory, in
Lancashire, will lie in the track; but totality there will be very
short, only about twenty seconds in duration.

[6] _Knowledge_, vol. xx. p. 9, January 1897.

[7] The _first photographic representation of the corona_ had, however,
been made during the eclipse of 1851. This was a daguerreotype taken by
Dr. Busch at Koenigsberg in Prussia.

CHAPTER IX

FAMOUS ECLIPSES OF THE MOON

The earliest lunar eclipse, of which we have any trustworthy
information, was a total one which took place on the 19th March, 721
B.C., and was observed from Babylon. For our knowledge of this eclipse
we are indebted to Ptolemy, the astronomer, who copied it, along with
two others, from the records of the reign of the Chaldean king,
Merodach-Baladan.

The next eclipse of the moon worth noting was a total one, which took
place some three hundred years later, namely, in 425 B.C. This eclipse
was observed at Athens, and is mentioned by Aristophanes in his play,
_The Clouds_.

Plutarch relates that a total eclipse of the moon, which occurred in 413
B.C., so greatly frightened Nicias, the general of the Athenians, then
warring in Sicily, as to cause a delay in his retreat from Syracuse
which led to the destruction of his whole army.

Seven years later--namely, in 406 B.C., the twenty-sixth year of the
Peloponnesian War--there took place another total lunar eclipse of which
mention is made by Xenophon.

Omitting a number of other eclipses alluded to by ancient writers, we
come to one recorded by Josephus as having occurred a little before the
death of Herod the Great. It is probable that the eclipse in question
was the total lunar one, which calculation shows to have taken place on
the 15th September 5 B.C., and to have been visible in Western Asia.
This is very important, for we are thus enabled to fix that year as the
date of the birth of Christ, for Herod is known to have died in the
early part of the year following the Nativity.

In those accounts of total lunar eclipses, which have come down to us
from the Dark and Middle Ages, the colour of the moon is nearly always
likened to "blood." On the other hand, in an account of the eclipse of
January 23, A.D. 753, our satellite is described as "covered with a
horri