Thanks to Newton, we now know when an eclipse will occur and where it can be observed

Mexico City. Currently, people can know when the eclipse will take place, just do a simple search on Google and enter the NASA eclipse site, where you will find exact information about the day, time, duration and places from where you can look better, which is the result of a long process of observation.

During the talk Mechanisms to predict eclipses in Mesoamerica, organized by the Institute of Aesthetic Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Stanislaw Iwaniszewski, doctor in anthropology from that university, and master in archeology from the University of Warsaw, explained that if today we know when an eclipse will occur and observe it, it is because there is an entire prediction system around that phenomenon.

Thanks to Newton’s theory of gravitation we can observe eclipses because astronomers tell us where it will be observed, at what time and there are even announcements about the cloudiness that will be recorded in a certain place, so that you can choose the clearest place and see the phenomenonhe detailed.

On the occasion of the total solar eclipse that will occur on April 8, which will last about 4:30 minutes and will cross the states of Sinaloa, Durango and Coahuila, the researcher pointed out that the maps of the trajectory of one of these astronomical phenomena have about 300 years, after Edmond Halley, known as The eclipse chaserwill start making them.

He was the one who made the first map of the places where a total solar eclipse could be seen in England, in 1715; To do this, he used Newton’s theory of gravitation, although he was wrong by four minutes.

Iwaniszewski added that the first maps had to be drawn by hand, in pencil and using some simple counting tools, which was time-consuming.

Maps and calendars

Starting with Halley, astronomers began to attach maps to the calendars and lunaries that people could buy. They provided information about where it could be observed and marked the observation strip.

He highlighted the work of astronomers, such as that of the Austrian Theodor von Oppolzer, who carried out his work Canon of eclipses, compilation of astronomical ephemeris that we still used in the 70s, 80s and 90s at the Institute of Astronomyheld.

Now instead of that work, people can access NASA’s eclipse website and consult information about these phenomena.

Iwaniszewski added that eclipses have always interested people, and because they are frequent astronomical events, it was possible to find a formula to predict them.

He added that in cultures such as Mesopotamian, the Greco-Roman world, in medieval and Renaissance Europe, in China, Japan and southern Mesoamerica, eclipses were observed, lunar calendars and the saros cycle were used for their prediction.

He indicated that in the case of Mesoamerica there is the eclipse table from the Dresden Codex, which dates back to the 12th century and was prepared in eastern Yucatan.

Eclipses have been integrated into Western culture in a playful way, and every time an event of this nature approaches, universities make their telescopes available to the public. Tourist agencies organize astronomical tours so that people can appreciate them from a hotel or a beach, but this was not always the case, the specialist recalled.

“We have not always seen eclipses as a didactic, emotional or aesthetically interesting element. Throughout history there have also been records of human groups that viewed them with some concern.

In many cultures they were considered bearers of bad omens. They attributed good news to solar eclipses, and negative forecasts to lunar eclipses.explicó Iwaniszewski.

He recalled that in some cultures The stars were considered animated beings, sometimes the gods themselves, and at other times soulful entities; If one or the other was hidden, it was worrying for the people who worshiped them that suddenly one would disappear.

However, the researcher maintained that today, People book a tour, go to a place, and with the accompaniment of a guide observe the eclipse without worry.