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Un hecho bien conocido ocurrió en 1492, cuando Cristóbal Colón navegó por el océano azul. Menos conocido es cómo Colón escapó por poco de la muerte 12 años después con la ayuda de un eclipse.
Después de un largo viaje en el mar en 1504, Colón, su tripulación y sus barcos estaban maltratados y mal equipados para seguir navegando. Desesperada y varada, la tripulación buscó comida de los nativos de la isla de Jamaica. Sin embargo, los jamaiquinos ya habían visto lo que los europeos tenían para ofrecer: codicia, enfermedad y apetitos insaciables. En cambio, los jamaiquinos se negaron a ayudar a Colón y dejaron a la tripulación a su suerte.
Luckily, Columbus used resourceful thinking and two manuscripts that he kept with him on his ship, originally for navigated the sea. It would also turn out that the two books would assist in saving Columbus’ life. One book was called the “perpetual almanac”, which contained a few hundred astronomical charts aiding in seafaring expeditions. The second book was an ephemeris authored by Regiomontanus which contained the prediction of a lunar eclipse on February 29th, 1504. Columbus was unsure of how correct this prediction could be, but he needed to take the risk.
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A day prior to when he anticipated the eclipse, Columbus gathered the native Jamaicans together, and told them that since they had refused to hear him out, the moon would disappear the next night. To everyone’s great dismay, the following night, the eclipse occurred. Regretful of their mistake, the natives begged Columbus for forgiveness and to return the moon to the sky in exchange for food and hospitality. In Columbus’ era, eclipse prediction was still inaccurate, sometimes by multiple years. With Regiomontanus’s predictions, Columbus and his crew escaped a hostile environment and eventually were rescued by a Spanish ship later that same year.
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