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A total

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

occurred on 3 May 1715. It was known as Halley's Eclipse, after

Edmond Halley Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Hal ...

(1656–1742) who predicted this eclipse to within 4 minutes accuracy. Halley observed the eclipse from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

where the city of London enjoyed 3 minutes 33 seconds of totality. He also drew a predictive map showing the path of totality across the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, whi ...

. The original map was about 20 miles off the observed eclipse path, mainly due to his use of inaccurate lunar

ephemeris In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly ve ...

. After the eclipse, he corrected the eclipse path, and added the path and description of the 1724 total solar eclipse. Drawing upon lunar tables made by the first Astronomer Royal

John Flamsteed John Flamsteed (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, ''Catalogus Britannicus'', and a star atlas called ''Atlas Coe ...

William Whiston William Whiston (9 December 166722 August 1752) was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularisation of the ideas of Isaac Newton. He is now probably best known for helping to inst ...

produced a more technical predictive eclipse map around the same time as Halley. Both Halley's and Whiston's maps were published by

John Senex John Senex (1678 in Ludlow, Shropshire – 1740 in London) was an English cartographer, engraver and explorer. He was also an astrologer, geologist, and geographer to Queen Anne of Great Britain, editor and seller of antique maps and most impor ...

in March 1715. Totality was observed in the Kingdom of Great Britain from Cornwall in the south-west to

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

and

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North ...

in the east. It was also observed in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, where large crowds turned out in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

to watch it: the weather in Dublin was exceptionally cold and wet, and the eminent judge

Joseph Deane Joseph Deane PC (1674–1715) was an Irish politician and judge who became Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. His sudden and premature death was popularly believed to be due to a chill caught when watching an eclipse of the sun. Background H ...

caught a fatal chill as a result, although Elrington Ball more prosaically states that his death was probably due to

gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensi ...

.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Note: Great Britain did not adopt the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years diff ...

until 1752, so the date was at the time considered 22 April 1715.

Related eclipses

It is a part of Solar Saros 114.

References

NASA chart graphics

Googlemap

NASA Besselian elements

External links

*
Total Eclipses of the Sun
', By

Mabel Loomis Todd Mabel Loomis Todd or Mabel Loomis (November 10, 1856 – October 14, 1932) was an American editor and writer. She is remembered as the editor of posthumously published editions of Emily Dickinson and also wrote several novels and logs of her ...

, 1894, new and revised edition by

David Peck Todd David Peck Todd (March 19, 1855 — June 1, 1939) was an American astronomer. He produced a complete set of photographs of the 1882 transit of Venus. Biography Todd was born in Lake Ridge, New York, the son of Sereno Edwards Todd and Rhoda (Pec ...

, 1900.
Halley's eclipse
Hans van der Meer's Eclipse Page

Halley is credited with the first eclipse map showing the path of the Moon's shadow across England during the upcoming total eclipse of 1715.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150502062458/http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/29/338-350/245.full.pdf+html

Edmund Halley, Observations of the Late Total Eclipse of the Sun on the 22d of April Last Past, Made before the Royal Society at Their House in Crane-Court in Fleet-Street, London. by Dr. Edmund Halley, Reg. Soc. Secr. with an Account of What Has Been Communicated from Abroad concerning the Same, Phil Trans R Soc 1714 29: 245–262.
Whiston's predictive map of March 1715

Related eclipses

See also

References

External links

Further reading