A solar eclipse is a rare occurrence that happens as the moon passes between the Earth and Sun, leaving many in awe. This phenomenon doesn’t happen quite often, especially a full solar eclipse.
This leads to the question, what can we learn from ancient solar eclipse records?Past records on solar eclipses reveal the change in rotation of the Earth over a short time frame. Researchers studied historical documents from around 1,500 years ago, and identified five total solar eclipses seen around the Eastern Mediterranean during that time, from the fourth to seventh centuries A.D. They pinpointed the probable times and locations of each eclipse. The five eclipses were in A.D.
However, due to the historical nature of this study, some important details may have been left out by those who recorded the events many centuries ago, data that could be vital to present day astronomers, including accurate locations and times.“For each case, we investigated the historical source texts to identify the most reliable reports and reproduce their original texts and provide their English translations,” the study mentioned.
“Although original eyewitness accounts from this period have mostly been lost, quotations, translations, etc., recorded by later generations provide valuable information,” said Koji Murata, assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. The key factor that this new study helps to explain is a formula for delta T, described as "the difference between time measured according to the Earth's rotation and time independent of the Earth's rotation. The variations in delta T represent the length of a day on Earth."
Such a detailed account of the ancient eclipses with this key variable allowed the researchers to give an example of an exact eclipse record from thousands of years ago. They identified one that took place on July 19, 418 in Constantinople, at that time the capital of the Roman Empire, and Istanbul now in modern-day Turkey.
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