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I’ve seen two total eclipses and one annular eclipse. You wouldn’t even notice an annular eclipse if you weren’t looking for it. I’m not sure how this would hav

I’ve seen two total eclipses and one annular eclipse. You wouldn’t even notice an annular eclipse if you weren’t looking for it. I’m not sure how this would have helped Joshua or have been worthy of note.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
> You wouldn’t even notice an annular eclipse if you weren’t looking for it. What? The partial eclipse I saw in 2017 was easily noticeable by anyone who looked even remotely near the sun.
- waynecochran 9y ago
  You notice it is slightly darker. Most folks aren’t looking at the sun. It surely wouldn’t affect an army.
  - rtkwe 9y ago
    Tactically yes it being a little dimmer doesn't directly weaken or strengthen a particular army. What is can do is affect morale given that events like this were shocking and often recorded as some kind of ill omen by people that saw them.
- skywhopper 9y ago
  To be fair, partial and annular eclipses are noticeable if you are looking for them, but they are absolutely nothing like a total eclipse, which really would feel like something apocalyptic if you were to experience it by surprise without understanding of what you were seeing or knowledge that it was temporary.
  - rtkwe 9y ago
    Yeah, there's definitely a huge difference between those two and a total eclipse but the assertion keeps coming up that ancient peoples wouldn't notice unless it was a total eclipse which is ridiculous.
- jessriedel 9y ago
  It gets slightly darker, as if it's a bit overcast, but the effect is very subtle due to the logarithmic response of the eye. And it doesn't help to look at the sun because it's much too bright to see the shape.
- dboreham 9y ago
  I saw the same eclipse in the zone of totality and I'm not sure I agree with you. You noticed something (a little less bright, a little colder) but only because you were expecting it. If you were not expecting the sun to do something unusual I think you'd either just not notice or put it down to some thin cloud cover moving over the sun. I say this because when viewing the total eclipse, things were pretty much normal, albeit a bit less than regular full sun brightness and temperature, until minutes before the onset of totality, so 95+% coverage.
planteen 9y ago
I've seen one total and one annular. Though an annular eclipse is not nearly as dramatic, I imagine a person outdoors a few thousand years ago would have noticed it. It looks as if it is sunset (golden hour type colors) and shadows look strange with a donut pattern.
- waynecochran 9y ago
  Yeah, but wouldn’t have made the history books or affected an army. A total eclipse on the other hand would have been a show stopper ... especially in ancient battle.
  - pavel_lishin 9y ago
    > Yeah, but wouldn’t have made the history books or affected an army. I can't believe that nobody wouldn't at least jot down, "Dear diary, today a huge fucking chunk of the sun was missing for about an hour. I sure am glad I'm literate, and that the godkingpharaohboss decided that a chunk of the sun missing warranted a brief note on precious lambskin/temple wall/holy book margin."
    - ComputerGuru 9y ago
      You can't tell any part of the sun isn't visible by looking at it directly without some sort of shielding from the glare.
      - lfam 9y ago
        You can tell because every shadow will show the weird shape of the sun. Here is a photograph of the shadows during an annular eclipse: https://imgur.com/gallery/8c7rdEU https://imgur.com/gallery/8c7rdEU Whether or not people >1000 years ago would notice this and record it... I refrain from pretending to know.
      - planteen 9y ago
        In addition to the shadows, a cloud passing over in about a 2 hour window would make it apparent.
baldfat 9y ago
Historically the stars and sun played a MUCH greater importance than today. They absolutely would have seen and recorded this event. Reason why is we see it in many other recording of them and throughout the ancient world. This helped us to much more accurately date history.
davidgay 9y ago
You are forgetting the case of when the sun is behind light clouds (which is not everywhere, but definitely does happen): http://slideviewer.appspot.com/show?tag=dgay,solar-eclipse,1999&offset=1 http://slideviewer.appspot.com/show?tag=dgay,solar-eclipse,1... (no filter)
hcrisp 9y ago
> I’m not sure how this would have helped Joshua... Especially when the text goes on to say that the sun "hasted not to go down about a whole day" during which time Joshua defeated his enemies [0]. The article does not address this part of the verse. It also omits the subsequent statement that "And there was no day like that before it or after it..." [1]. [0] https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197013 https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197013 [1] https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197014 https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197014
pcl 9y ago
Perhaps that depends on how large of a ring is around the moon? The sun was noticeably eclipsed to the naked eye during the annular eclipse I've seen (2012 in California).

pavel_lishin 9y ago

> You wouldn’t even notice an annular eclipse if you weren’t looking for it. What? The partial eclipse I saw in 2017 was easily noticeable by anyone who looked even remotely near the sun.

waynecochran 9y ago
You notice it is slightly darker. Most folks aren’t looking at the sun. It surely wouldn’t affect an army.
- rtkwe 9y ago
  Tactically yes it being a little dimmer doesn't directly weaken or strengthen a particular army. What is can do is affect morale given that events like this were shocking and often recorded as some kind of ill omen by people that saw them.
skywhopper 9y ago
To be fair, partial and annular eclipses are noticeable if you are looking for them, but they are absolutely nothing like a total eclipse, which really would feel like something apocalyptic if you were to experience it by surprise without understanding of what you were seeing or knowledge that it was temporary.
- rtkwe 9y ago
  Yeah, there's definitely a huge difference between those two and a total eclipse but the assertion keeps coming up that ancient peoples wouldn't notice unless it was a total eclipse which is ridiculous.
jessriedel 9y ago
It gets slightly darker, as if it's a bit overcast, but the effect is very subtle due to the logarithmic response of the eye. And it doesn't help to look at the sun because it's much too bright to see the shape.
dboreham 9y ago
I saw the same eclipse in the zone of totality and I'm not sure I agree with you. You noticed something (a little less bright, a little colder) but only because you were expecting it. If you were not expecting the sun to do something unusual I think you'd either just not notice or put it down to some thin cloud cover moving over the sun. I say this because when viewing the total eclipse, things were pretty much normal, albeit a bit less than regular full sun brightness and temperature, until minutes before the onset of totality, so 95+% coverage.

planteen 9y ago

I've seen one total and one annular. Though an annular eclipse is not nearly as dramatic, I imagine a person outdoors a few thousand years ago would have noticed it. It looks as if it is sunset (golden hour type colors) and shadows look strange with a donut pattern.

waynecochran 9y ago
Yeah, but wouldn’t have made the history books or affected an army. A total eclipse on the other hand would have been a show stopper ... especially in ancient battle.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  > Yeah, but wouldn’t have made the history books or affected an army. I can't believe that nobody wouldn't at least jot down, "Dear diary, today a huge fucking chunk of the sun was missing for about an hour. I sure am glad I'm literate, and that the godkingpharaohboss decided that a chunk of the sun missing warranted a brief note on precious lambskin/temple wall/holy book margin."
  - ComputerGuru 9y ago
    You can't tell any part of the sun isn't visible by looking at it directly without some sort of shielding from the glare.
    - lfam 9y ago
      You can tell because every shadow will show the weird shape of the sun. Here is a photograph of the shadows during an annular eclipse: https://imgur.com/gallery/8c7rdEU https://imgur.com/gallery/8c7rdEU Whether or not people >1000 years ago would notice this and record it... I refrain from pretending to know.
    - planteen 9y ago
      In addition to the shadows, a cloud passing over in about a 2 hour window would make it apparent.

baldfat 9y ago

Historically the stars and sun played a MUCH greater importance than today. They absolutely would have seen and recorded this event. Reason why is we see it in many other recording of them and throughout the ancient world. This helped us to much more accurately date history.

davidgay 9y ago

You are forgetting the case of when the sun is behind light clouds (which is not everywhere, but definitely does happen): http://slideviewer.appspot.com/show?tag=dgay,solar-eclipse,1999&offset=1 http://slideviewer.appspot.com/show?tag=dgay,solar-eclipse,1... (no filter)

hcrisp 9y ago

> I’m not sure how this would have helped Joshua... Especially when the text goes on to say that the sun "hasted not to go down about a whole day" during which time Joshua defeated his enemies [0]. The article does not address this part of the verse. It also omits the subsequent statement that "And there was no day like that before it or after it..." [1]. [0] https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197013 https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197013 [1] https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197014 https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jos/10/13/t_conc_197014

pcl 9y ago

Perhaps that depends on how large of a ring is around the moon? The sun was noticeably eclipsed to the naked eye during the annular eclipse I've seen (2012 in California).