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 Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

was visible on May 1, 1185 in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. The eclipse is number 30 in the Solar Saros 115 series. The eclipse shadow on the Earth's surface was at its greatest at 13:18:02

Universal Time Universal Time (UT or UT1) is a time standard based on Earth's rotation. While originally it was mean solar time at 0° longitude, precise measurements of the Sun are difficult. Therefore, UT1 is computed from a measure of the Earth's angle wi ...

. The sun was in

Taurus Taurus is Latin for 'bull' and may refer to: * Taurus (astrology), the astrological sign ** Vṛṣabha, in vedic astrology * Taurus (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Taurus (mythology), one of two Greek mythological ch ...

at this time. The eclipse was documented in ''

Tale of Igor's Campaign ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...

'' and the

Laurentian Codex Laurentian Codex or Laurentian Letopis () is a collection of chronicles that includes the oldest extant version of the ''Primary Chronicle'' and its continuations, mostly relating the events in the northeastern Rus' principalities of Vladimir-Su ...

, and possibly the ''

Chronicle of Melrose The ''Chronicle of Melrose'' is a medieval chronicle from the Cottonian Manuscript, Faustina B. ix within the British Museum. It was written by unknown authors, though evidence in the writing shows that it most likely was written by the monks a ...

'' and the ''

Brut y Tywysogion ''Brut y Tywysogion'' () is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. ''Brut y Tywysogion'' has survived ...

''. It may have influenced

Igor Svyatoslavich Igor Svyatoslavich (3 April 1151 – ), nicknamed the Brave, was Prince of Novgorod-Seversk (1180–1198) and Prince of Chernigov (1198–1201/1202). Life The son of Sviatoslav Olgovich, prince of Chernigov, in 1169 Igor took part in the war agai ...

's campaign against the

Polovtsians The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Rus' chronicles, as "Cum ...

Eclipse path

The shadow axis passed between the Earth's center and the north pole. The minimum distance from the center of the Earth to the Moon's shadow cone axis was 3,357 kilometers. The average length of the Moon's shadow was 373,320 kilometers. The distance from the Earth to the Moon on 1 May 1185 was 347,727 kilometers. The apparent diameter of the Moon was 1.0736 times that of the Sun. The shadow had a maximum width of 280 kilometers. It began on the west coast of Central America and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a northeasterly direction. The shadow passed through present-day

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

and

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. The maximum duration of the eclipse occurred in the middle of the North Atlantic at coordinates 46°N, 37.2°W. The maximum duration of totality was 5 minutes and 10 seconds. The eclipse magnitude is 1.0736. The eclipse was preceded two weeks earlier by a partial lunar eclipse on April 16. A partial eclipse came ashore in Scotland, crossed the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, and entered Norway. According to astronomer Sheridan Williams, there was probably a drop in temperature at the time of the eclipse, around 2 pm in Scotland. He says that it was Scotland's fifth longest total eclipse at 4 minutes and 40 seconds. Williams also notes that some older observers in Scotland may have also witnessed the previous eclipse, 52 years earlier. After passing through present-day Sweden, the eclipse touched a part of Finland and covered the northern part of the Baltic Sea at the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

. The eclipse then entered Russia. The eclipse's shadow touched part of what would be

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, as well as

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

and

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

. As the shadow journeyed in a southeasterly direction, it passed through the modern sites of

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

, Ufa, and

Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population is curre ...

. The eclipse shadow started diminishing when it entered present-day

and extinguished completely about 30 miles before reaching

Astana Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-largest in the country after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim ...

In literature

The eclipse was mentioned in the

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

epic poem '' Lay of the Host of Igor''. It was seen by Prince

and his army whilst on their campaign against the

, and was interpreted as a message from God prophesying trouble, frightening Igor's men who thought it a bad omen. According to the ''Lay'', after the eclipse Igor gave a long speech to his

retinue A retinue is a body of persons "retained" in the service of a noble, royal personage, or dignitary; a ''suite'' (French "what follows") of retainers. Etymology The word, recorded in English since circa 1375, stems from Old French ''retenue'', ...

to allay their fears before proceeding on his campaign. The eclipse is mentioned in the 14th-century Laurentian Chronicle with the first detailed description of

solar prominence In solar physics, a prominence, sometimes referred to as a filament, is a large Plasma (physics), plasma and magnetic field structure extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface ...

s. They were described as flame-like tongues of live embers:

On the first day of the month of May, on the day of the Saint Prophet Jeremiah, on Wednesday, during the evening service, there was a sign in the Sun. It became very dark, even the stars could be seen; it seemed to men as if everything were green, and the Sun became like a crescent of the Moon, from the horns of which a glow similar to that of red-hot charcoals was emanating. It was terrible to see this sign of the Lord. Original text cited at

The

Melrose Chronicle The ''Chronicle of Melrose'' is a medieval chronicle from the Cottonian Manuscript, Faustina B. ix within the British Museum. It was written by unknown authors, though evidence in the writing shows that it most likely was written by the monks a ...

claims that "stars appeared" at

Melrose Melrose may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Melrose, Scottish Borders, a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland ** Melrose Abbey, ruined monastery ** Melrose RFC, rugby club Australia * Melrose, Queensland, a locality in the South Burnett R ...

in Scotland during the eclipse of 1185, but this is doubted by the writer Thomas Cooper, who notes that scientific calculations indicate that the eclipse was not total at Melrose. The

, the Welsh Chronicle of the Princes, says of the solar eclipse of 1 May 1185, ''Yn y ulwyddyn honno dyw Calan Mei y sumudawd yr heul y lliw; ac y dywat rei uot anei diffyc'', which translates as: ''In that year on the day of the

Calends The calends or kalends () is the first day of every month in the Roman calendar. The English word "calendar" is derived from this word. Use The Romans called the first day of every month the ''calends'', signifying the start of a new lunar pha ...

of May the Sun changed its colour; and some said that it was under an eclipse.'' Bryn Jones believes there was a total solar eclipse across the Scottish Highlands, the

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islands form part ...

and

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

.. The translation is cited there from

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * *
The total solar eclipse of 1 May 1185
(Russian)
NASA interactive map of total solar eclipse of 1 May 1185

External links

Solar eclipse newsletter
*
NASA Besselian Elements – Total Solar Eclipse of 1185 May 01
{{Solar eclipses 1185 5 1 1185 5 1 1185 5 1 1185