Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation

A scientist who has studied eclipses for many years tells their story and explains their importance today.

F. Richard Stephenson (Author)

9780521056335, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 March 2008

576 pages, 111 b/w illus. 62 tables
24.4 x 17.1 x 2.9 cm, 0.224 kg

'[The author] is to be commended for this work of careful synthesis'. Henry Innes MacAdam, IBS

This book is intended for geophysicists, astronomers (especially those with an interest in history), historians and orientalists. The culmination of many years of research, it discusses, in depth, ancient and medieval eclipse observations and their importance in studying Earth's past rotation. This was the first major book on this subject to appear in the last twenty years. The author has specialised in the interpretation of early astronomical records and their application to problems in modern astronomy for many years. The book contains an in-depth discussion of numerous eclipse records from Babylon, China, Europe and the Arab lands. Translations of almost every record studied are given. It is shown that although tides play a dominant long-term role in producing variations in Earth's rate of rotation - causing a gradual increase in the length of the day - there are significant, and variable non-tidal changes in opposition to the main trend.

1. Variations in the length of the day: a historical perspective
2. Tidal friction and the ephemerides of the Sun and Moon
3. Pre-telescopic eclipse observations and their analysis
4. Babylonian and Assyrian records of eclipses
5. Investigation of Babylonian observations of solar eclipses
6. Timed Babylonian lunar eclipses
7. Untimed Babylonian observations of lunar eclipses: horizon phenomena
8. Chinese and other East Asian observations of large solar eclipses
9. Other East Asian observations of solar and lunar eclipses
10. Records of eclipses in ancient European history
11. Eclipse records from medieval Europe
12. Solar and lunar eclipses recorded in medieval Arabic chronicles
13. Observations of solar and lunar eclipses made by medieval Arab astronomers
14. Determination of changes in the length of the day and geophysical interpretation
Appendix A
Appendix B
References.

Subject Areas: Astronomy, space & time [PG]