100 Days Until Totality Blog Series: 67 Days Left – The Black Hour

Desde el comienzo de la historia astronómica, los seres humanos han estado fascinados con los patrones y fenómenos del cielo. Durante la Edad Media, los astrólogos miraban a las estrellas para satisfacer esa sensación de control y comprensión al ver los movimientos rutinarios a medida que las estrellas se elevaban y se ponían en la misma dirección cada noche. Además, formaron constelaciones reconocibles en el cielo que coincidían consistentemente con los dogmas y leyendas de la época.

However, when something unique and out of place occurred in the sky, it sent panic and discord throughout the minds of folks looking upwards. The total solar eclipse of 1433 C.E. in Scotland was no different. This solar eclipse was a significant event that records of the time call “The Black Hour”. The people who experienced the event mention that the eclipse was uniquely widespread and even darker than most eclipses, lasting roughly 1 hour. In this particular eclipse, the moon was only 0.8 days after perigee, making the moon slightly larger in appearance and totality lasting a fairly long 4 minutes and 38 seconds. Even more terrifying, at this time deadly diseases such as smallpox, measles, and leprosy were making their way around European lands. For this reason, people may have seen this extraordinary eclipse as a bad omen that had brought sickness upon them. When the sky went dark in the middle of the day, it was nothing short of a nightmare for folks living in a very superstitious time in history.

Fuentes aquí y aquí.