LibGuides: Solar Eclipse: Home

"During a Solar Eclipse" by Howard Nemerov

Taken from a collection of Nemerov's work titled "Sentences", call number: PS 3527 .E5 S45 1980

The darkening disk of the moon before the sun

All morning moves, turning our common day

A deep and iris blue, daylight of dream

In which we stand bemused and looking on

Backward at shadow and reflected light,

While the two great wanderers among the worlds

Enter their transit with our third, a thing

So rare that in his time upon the earth

A man may see, as I have done, but four,

In childhood two, a third in youth, and this

In likelihood my last. We stand bemused

While grass and rock darken, and stillness grows,

Until the sun and moon slide out of phase

And light returns us to the common life

That is so long to do and so soon done.

Safe Practices for Observing a Solar Eclipse

Credit: Canadian Space Agency

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Interested in donating the pictures you take during the eclipse?

The BU Archives and the Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC) would be happy to receive your images to share with future generations!

Get in touch by using the emails below.

BU Archives - Anna Grant (agrant@ubishops.ca)

ETRC - Jazmine Aldrich (etrc2@ubishops.ca)

Capturing the Solar Eclipse with Art, Songs, Poems and Films

The appearance of the total solar eclipse The appearance of the total solar eclipse from Haradon Hill near Salisbury, May 11, 1724, by E. Kirkhall after Stukeley
What to know about the solar eclipse For the first time in 30 years, eclipse madness swept across the continent in summer 2017. Bob McDonald, host of CBC's Quirks & Quarks, talks about the history and science of this celestial spectacle. He also talks about why we don't have a better name for "the moon" or what might happen if a huge asteroid passed by the sun.
Astronomy: the corona of the sun Total eclipse of July 7 1842. Viewed during a total solar eclipse.
Eclipse at Grand'Mère The eclipse of the sun on July 10, 1963, drew scientists and amateur stargazers to the little, out-of-the-way town of Grand'Mère, Québec, where the total eclipse was plainly visible. This film presents candid camera views of the festivities with which the town greeted the influx of visitors, and also shows the spectacle of the moon blotting out the sun.
Les Chasseurs d'ombre Phénomène spectaculaire, l'éclipse du Soleil a toujours subjugué les êtres humains. Pour certains, l'attrait des éclipses s'apparente à une passion obsessive. Qu'est-ce qui peut bien faire courir ces chasseurs d'ombre? La caméra suit quatre d'entre eux venus assister à la dernière éclipse totale du millénaire, dont le tracé d'ombre traverse l'Europe jusqu'en Orient. À différents points du parcours, Alain Cirou, en France, Paul Houde, en Autriche, Olivier Staiger, en Allemagne, et Debasis Sarkar, en Inde, se pressent au rendez-vous historique. Depuis les légendes venues de religions et de civilisations anciennes jusqu'à aujourd'hui, un seul point de convergence : la quête d'une spiritualité à l'état brut. Méditation poétique, ce film évoque, par touches impressionnistes, le lien qui relie les êtres devant l'absolu, alors que l'être tout entier devient une fine pellicule sur laquelle s'imprime bien plus que l'ombre de la Lune.
Shakespeare Selfie : Reading of 2018 winner -The Universe's Greatest Love Story by Cynthia Gan Cynthia Gan, 14, won the Grades 7 to 9 category of the 2018 Shakespeare Selfie student writing challenge. Her poem on the total solar eclipse of 2017 was inspired by the star cross'd lovers and written from the perspective of Friar Laurence from Romeo & Juliet. Gan attends Richmond Christian Secondary School in Richmond, B.C.
The eclipse, a poem : in commemoration of the total eclipse of the sun, April 22. 1715 By W. W
Glass framed photograph showing a time lapse sequence of the partially eclipsed Sun and corona at totality. Glass framed photograph [x34] showing a time lapse sequence of the partially eclipsed Sun and corona at totality. Taken by H. Stubington at St. Petersburg on April 17, 1912. Photograph showing a time-lapse sequence of seven images of the partial phases and totality seen during the solar eclipse of the 17th April 1912. H.Stubington captured this view taken in the late afternoon by observing the event from St Petersburg in Russia. The photograph was achieved by the method of re-exposing the same portion of film at seven instances during the eclipse. With the camera stationary the view shows the relative movement of the Sun and the Moon as well as their joint motion from left to right due to the Earth's rotation.
Glass positive photograph of total Solar eclipse Photograph of the Corona taken at the total Solar Eclipse 1919 May 29 at Sobral, Brazil, with a telescope 4 inches aperture 19 feet focal length, glass positive (10" x 12"). The expedition organized by Sir Arthur Eddington of the Royal Greenwich Observatory used photographs taken during the eclipse to measure the deflection of star light adjacent to the Sun as predicted by Einstein in his Theory of Relativity. In May 1919, British physicist Arthur Eddington organized a test of Einstein s general theory of relativity. Two Royal Society teams observed a solar eclipse from Brazil and the island of Principe off west Africa. Photographs appeared to show that the mass of the Sun had bent light from distant stars, just as Einstein had predicted. This gravitational distortion could only be observed during a total eclipse, when the Sun's own light was masked.
Photograph of the instruments used by the British expedition when observing the 1919 total solar eclipse in Brazil. Mounted photograph (passe partout) showing the instruments used at Sobral, Brazil, during the total solar eclipse of 1919 May 29. The expedition organised by Sir Arthur Eddington of the Royal Greenwich Observatory used photographs taken during the eclipse to measure the deflection of star light adjacent to the Sun as predicted by Einstein in his Theory of Relativity. Photograph (bromide print) showing the instruments used by the British expedition sent to observe the 29th May 1919 total solar eclipse from Sobral in Brazil. Sir Arthur Eddington at Cambridge University organised the eclipse trip to try and test Einstein's Theory of Relativity. During the event, two heliostats with moveable mirrors were used to direct images of the eclipsed Sun into a pair of horizontal telescopes. Measurement of photographs taken through these instruments was checked for any deflection of star positions adjacent to the Sun. Einstein suggested that the large mass of a star like our Sun would bend the path of any starlight if it passed close-by.

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