- 336 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Mask of the Sun
About this book
What do Emily Dickinson, slave revolts, Babylonian Kings, and Monticello all have in common? A solar eclipse. Whether it was deciding on the location of a grand home (or castle), inspiring poetry, timing battles and revolts, or planning expeditions, eclipses have inspired fear and fascination. Solar eclipses allowed Ptolemy to determine the length of the Mediterranean and helped Einstein establish his General Theory of Relativity. Preliterate societies recorded eclipses on turtle shells found in "The Wastes of Yin" and on the Mayan "Dresden Codex." Eclipses were later instrumental in the creation of longitude and allowed Hubble to understand the expansion of the Universe (and disprove another theory of Einstein's in the process). John Dvorak, the acclaimed author of Earthquake Storms and The Last Volcano, examines this amazing phenomena and reveals the humanism behind the science. With insightful detail and vividly accessible prose, he provides explanations as to how and why eclipses occur—as well as insight into the eclipse of 2017, which was visible across North America.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Mask of the Sun by John Dvorak in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Physical Sciences & Science History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Index
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
A
Abbe, Cleveland, 148
Abbot, Charles, 161
Adair, James, 164–165
Adams, John, 139
Adams, Walter, 229–230
Adonis, 206
Airy, George, 121–122, 126, 131, 232
Al-Biruni, Ahmad, 55, 57, 117
Alexander the Great, xxvi, 38–39, 50, 84
Alfonsine Tables, 58–60
Alfonso X, 58
Alfred the Great, 9
Al-Haytham, Ibn, 89
Alighieri, Dante, 58–59
Al-Khwarizmi, Musa, 57–58, 60
Allegheny Observatory, 150
Almagest, 56–60, 65
Almanach Perpetuum, 59, 64
Al-Wafa, Abu, 55
American Practical Navigator, 144, 172
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 9
Animal behaviors, 169–172
Annalen der Physik, 209
Anne, Queen, 9, 11–12
Annulus, 113–117
Anomalistic months, 42
Antikythera Mechanism, 51–52
Antony and Cleopatra, 8
Apogee, 42
Arago, François, 127–128, 188
Aristophanes, 78
Aristotle, 50, 89
Assyrian Eponym Canon, 82–83
Astronomia Nova, 67–68
Astronomical calculations, 62, 77–83, 154
Astronomical Diaries, The, 44, 54
Astronomical tables, 56–59, 67–71, 79, 86, 89, 93, 102
Astronomical tools, 50–51, 114–117
Augustus, Emperor, 10
B
Babcock, Rufus, 145
Baily, Francis, 113–117, 120–122, 126, 135, 228
Baily beads, 116–117, 120–122, 148
“Ballet of the Night, The,” 11
Balloon flights, 141–142, 194
Bamboo Annals, 78–79
Barker, George, 155
Bass, Edgar, 150
Beam of light, 208–209
Berkowski, Johann, 129, 131
Berlin Observatory, 201, 209–210
Beryllium-10, 226
Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm, 112
Besselian elements, 112, 114
Bismarck, Otto von, 141
“Black Monday,” 8
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 114
Bond, William Cranch, 172–173
Book of Documents, 84
Books on Calendrical Astronomy of the Chongzhen Reign, 87
Borgia, Gaspar de, 5
Bowditch, Nathaniel, 144, 172–173
Brahe, Tycho, 66
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, xxiii
Brown, Ernest, xx, xxi, 190
Brown, Mildred, 190
Buddha, 77
C
Caesar, Julius, 77
“Cairn L,” 26
Calculus tool, 96
Calendar systems, 42, 49, 78, 84–86
Cameras, 128–134
Campanella, Tommaso, 3–7
Campbell, William, xxvi, 161, 189, 209–212
Canterbury Tales, The, 59
Carbon-14, 77, 225–226
Carroll, Lewis, 190
Charlemagne, 10
Charles I, King, 1, 11
Charles III, King, 12
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 59
Chemical elements, 140, 193–194, 225–226, 229–230
Cherokee, 163–164
Chongzhen, Emperor, 73, 86–87
Chromosphere, 232–233
Chronological events, 73–83
Chronology Project, 76–78
Chronometers, 115, 143–148
Cincinnati Observatory, 148
Cisneros, Jiménez de, 46
Clairaut, Alexis Claude, 103, 106
Clavius, Christopher, 222, 224
Clocks, mechanical, 105–106
Clockwork mechanism, 51–52
Clouds, The, 78
Codices, 46–49
Coffin, John, 146
Coffin, Louisa...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Contents
- Prologue: New York, 1925
- One: The Heretic and the Pope
- Two: The Invisible Planets of Rahu and Ketu
- Three: Saros and the Substitute King
- Four: Measuring the World
- Five: The Waste of Yin
- Six: A Request to the Curious
- Seven: The Annulus at Inch Bonney
- Eight: A Simple Truth of Nature
- Nine: Eclipse Chasers
- Ten: Keys and Kettledrums
- Eleven: The Crucifixion and the Concorde
- Twelve: Einstein’s Error
- Thirteen: The Glorious Corona
- Epilogue: Illinois, 2017
- Appendix: An Eclipse Primer
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Sources
- Index
- Also by John Dvorak
- Copyright