There are some people who can hardly be bothered to step outside and look up at a solar eclipse. Me, I drove 1,500 miles last week to view it. Seven years ago we didn’t have to drive anywhere to see the eclipse and I decided at that time that when this one came around I would head for Texas. I’ve seen two or three partial eclipses, but until last week only the one total eclipse that passed over Gothenburg.

Because of the eclipse in 2017, most everyone knows the mechanics of the eclipse as the new moon comes between us and the sun. In fact, the mechanics of eclipses was figured out by Johannes Kepler in 1600. The Chinese, the Maya, the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Pueblo peoples all left records of eclipses. The Maya, Chinese, and Babylonians even figured out the pattern of eclipses and though they didn’t understand the mechanics, from the pattern of eclipses called the Saros Cycle, they accurately predicted future eclipses.

While the Chinese may have had the most precise records of eclipses, the oldest record of a total solar eclipse comes from County Meath, Ireland. The record for the eclipse, which astronomers now believe occurred over Ireland on Nov. 30, 3,340 B.C., is carved in solid rock.

What is interesting about the Chinese records is they were used to quantify the reduction in the speed of the rotation of the earth! NASA studied Chinese eclipse records of five eclipses that occurred between 1226 B.C. and 1161 B.C. over the town of Anyang. The speed of the earth’s rotation is fairly easy to determine.

Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth 300 years before Christ and there are 24 hours in a day. You simply divide the circumference by 24 and you have the speed of rotation in miles per hour. Of course, Eratosthenes thought it was the sun that went around the earth, not the earth’s rotation.

Using the present-day speed of rotation NASA calculated when the eclipses should arrive at Anyang and they came up with different times than were recorded. Why? The rotational speed of the earth is slowing! From the Chinese records they were able to calculate that the speed of the spinning earth is slowing down by 47/1000’s of a second per day. Thus over the 3,200 years since the eclipses were recorded in China, the earth has slowed 150 seconds…or 2.5 minutes!

We were lucky in that the clouds that were predicted for Bonham, Texas parted and we had an excellent view of the totality that lasted almost four minutes. I don’t know if I will ever get the chance to view another total eclipse of the sun.

The next one that will cross the U.S. similar to the one in 2017 will be in 2045.

Then in 2052, there will be one similar to last week.

No, I’m too old for those, however, there is a total solar eclipse predicted for 2028, only four years from now, in Australia and New Zealand. I’ve always wanted to take a trip “down under”, so who knows, maybe I will get to see one more!