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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 notice

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.
    - detritus 9y ago
      It's not smart nor clever, but as a child I used to stare at the sun wide-eyed until my eyeballs teared up beyond my ability to keep them open any longer — easily thirty seconds and more. My memory was of the sun itself distinctly resolving itself into a perfect circle with a sort of contrasting peripheral shadow that I recall describing as being 'like an aspirin pill'. I blame some 80s TV show where an astronaut gained superhuman powers of some sort after staring directly at the sun. I've always been curious to know what, if any, affect this has had on my vision (I don't have a terribly good capacity for resolving contrast during twilight).
      - narag 9y ago
        I don't have a terribly good capacity for resolving contrast during twilight Try vitamine A. The effect is very noticeable.
- ereyes01 9y ago
  Turns out such a thing really did happen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eclipse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eclipse ... in this case, the eclipse led to the battle being canceled in favor of a peace treaty, out of fear of divine rage. Dan Carlin covers it in King of Kings (his history of ancient Persia), which is a great listen.
tytytytytytytyt 9y ago
You'd think they'd have a way of describing the sun being slightly dimmer, like it being a sunset, that's different from 'it completely stopped', since the sun regularly sets.
- dragontamer 9y ago
  The "color" of an eclipse, even a partial or annular one, is completely different from a sunset. Sunsets have a "reddish hue" to them. During an eclipse, the world gets darker without getting redder. Its most dramatic on a total eclipse of course, but even at 80% to 90% it was a different feel than "sunset". Anyone who is outside regularly in a 80%+ eclipse on a clear and open day will notice the dramatic shift in color. The key is that you'd have to be standing around and getting used to the colors outside to notice.

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.
  - detritus 9y ago
    It's not smart nor clever, but as a child I used to stare at the sun wide-eyed until my eyeballs teared up beyond my ability to keep them open any longer — easily thirty seconds and more. My memory was of the sun itself distinctly resolving itself into a perfect circle with a sort of contrasting peripheral shadow that I recall describing as being 'like an aspirin pill'. I blame some 80s TV show where an astronaut gained superhuman powers of some sort after staring directly at the sun. I've always been curious to know what, if any, affect this has had on my vision (I don't have a terribly good capacity for resolving contrast during twilight).
    - narag 9y ago
      I don't have a terribly good capacity for resolving contrast during twilight Try vitamine A. The effect is very noticeable.
ereyes01 9y ago
Turns out such a thing really did happen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eclipse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eclipse ... in this case, the eclipse led to the battle being canceled in favor of a peace treaty, out of fear of divine rage. Dan Carlin covers it in King of Kings (his history of ancient Persia), which is a great listen.

tytytytytytytyt 9y ago

You'd think they'd have a way of describing the sun being slightly dimmer, like it being a sunset, that's different from 'it completely stopped', since the sun regularly sets.

dragontamer 9y ago
The "color" of an eclipse, even a partial or annular one, is completely different from a sunset. Sunsets have a "reddish hue" to them. During an eclipse, the world gets darker without getting redder. Its most dramatic on a total eclipse of course, but even at 80% to 90% it was a different feel than "sunset". Anyone who is outside regularly in a 80%+ eclipse on a clear and open day will notice the dramatic shift in color. The key is that you'd have to be standing around and getting used to the colors outside to notice.