Eclipse on pope's funeral

2005-04-06 07:53

Paris - Those who say eclipses herald history-shaping events will find support for their superstition when, on Friday, the sun will be briefly plunged into darkness on the day of Pope John Paul II's funeral.

Astronomers, though, say the eclipse, while of a rare and intriguing type, was calculated long ago and is simply part of a ballet in celestial physics between the sun, earth and moon.

It will be visible on Friday along an arc ranging from the southwestern Pacific to South America, at a time it will already be night in Rome.

The event will be a rare type called a "hybrid eclipse", expert Fred Espenak says on his website sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov.

Along the central part of its path, some sections will have a total eclipse, in which the moon will completely obscure the sun.

On other sections of the track, though, it will be an annular eclipse - the moon will appear to have a brilliant, blazing ring around it.

Curvature of the earth

Total eclipses occur when the moon comes between the earth and the sun, completely obscuring the solar disk for a few minutes and illuminating the landscape in an eerie light. The eclipse follows a West-to-East track that lasts several hours until the alignment ends.

Hybrid eclipses occur because of the curvature of the earth, says Espenak.

Sometimes the moon's shadow touches the earth's surface, while at others it falls just short, thus providing the "ring" effect.

Friday's event will last three hours and 24 minutes, according to Espenak's calculations.

It begins at 18:54 GMT southeast of New Zealand, then races eastwards on a line north of the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and finally Venezuela, where there will be a 33-second annular eclipse at sunset at 22:18.

People living in New Zealand and to the north and south of this central line, including most of the southern US, will see a partial eclipse - the sun will appear to have had a "bite" taken out of it.

Astronomical proof

Total eclipses were often seen as the harbingers of great events, from droughts and floods to failed harvests and the downfall of kings.

In ancient China, the belief was that an eclipse was caused when the gods dispatched a dragon to eat the sun. The monster then had to be chased away with dances, incantations, the clashing of cymbals and the unleashing of arrows and fireworks.

Even the word "eclipse" comes from a Greek word, "ekleipsis", which means to fail or be abandoned.

"The sun has perished out of heaven and an evil mist hovers over all," was Homer's horrified account of an eclipse in The Odyssey.

Two eclipses occurred near Palestine in AD29 and AD33 - events that, for some Christians, give astronomical proof to the biblical account that the sky darkened at Jesus' death on the cross.

Total solar eclipses happen about once every 18 months or so, although two partial eclipses occur somewhere on earth each year. The next hybrid eclipse will take place on April 20 2023.

- AFP