Astronomical Report on Eclipses.

On the Eclipses of the years 1620 and 1621.

Both the past and the upcoming eclipses provide us with very memorable reminders.

I have observed with special diligence both lunar eclipses original: "Monsfinsternussen" that were seen in the now-ending year of 1620. The first appeared in Linz, Austria, on June 5/15 The double date reflects the transition between the old Julian calendar and the new Gregorian calendar, which were both in use across different European regions at this time., before daybreak. It began 9 minutes before midnight, on the left side, slightly above the middle. The measurement of the altitude of the Moon and the stars, as well as the calculation of the specific minutes for each observation, proceeded quite correctly. When I looked with great care through the long tube original: "langen Rohr"; a reference to an early refracting telescope. Kepler was one of the first to improve upon Galileo's design. at the eclipsed Moon within three minutes, I could not see it at all. At 12:38, about 7 minutes of light remained. As it approached the total eclipse, I could not truly tell if the Moon had fully entered the shadow. For its light remained a pale color for a considerable time, so much so that I doubted whether it was true sunlight or merely a false after-glow original: "Affterschein" refracted in our atmosphere. Around 1:00 AM, its light appeared to me (viewed with the naked, weak eye, without the telescope) like a star of the first magnitude original: "primae magnitudinis"; a classification for the brightest stars in the sky: and the sky became so clear that I could very well distinguish the divided Milky Way original: "Milchstrass" right next to the Moon.

After 6 minutes, something still shone like a dim fixed star original: "Fixstern"; stars that appear to stay in the same position relative to one another, unlike "wandering stars" or planets. in the place where the Moon was to be sought; it formed almost a straight line with a star in the shoulder of Sagittarius original: "Schützens" and a still dimmer one in the Bow; it was also a little further beyond this end and hung just a bit lower. One might well have thought it was a true fixed star that was subsequently covered by the Moon’s passage.

At 1:08 AM, all light had vanished so completely that one could not notice in the slightest where the Moon stood. At 2:00 AM, I looked around diligently and saw the stars of Sagittarius and the Serpent original: "Schlangen"; referring to the constellation Serpens, as well as the Milky Way, but absolutely nothing of the Moon. Then the sky began to brighten slightly at 2:08 AM. At 2:32 AM, I again caught sight of such a small light as I had seen before at 1:00 AM, and this was on the right, slightly above the middle. At 2:45 AM, I estimated the light portion to be 4 minutes original: "minuten"; here referring to arcminutes, a measure of angular distance in the sky wide; at 2:52 AM it was about 7 minutes, and 14 minutes later, roughly half of it was shining.

And as the Moon was about to go behind the mountains, at an altitude of 3 degrees and 20 minutes—that is, at 3:32 AM—the Moon still lacked about a fifth or sixth of its width. The Moon was very red, just as it had been earlier during its rise, and the air around the horizon was iron-colored original: "Eisenfarb"; likely describing the deep, rusty red or dark grey-blue of a low-hanging moon in a hazy atmosphere.. Half an hour later, the Sun emerged from behind a low hill.

Upon diligent inspection of these recorded phenomena, the midpoint is found at 1:46 AM, whereas from Tycho’s calculation original: "ex calculo Tychonis"; referring to the astronomical tables of Kepler's mentor, Tycho Brahe. I calculate 8 minutes more. Thus, it is found that the eclipse lasted 7 minutes less than 4 hours; it should have lasted 9 minutes over 4 hours, and thus 16 minutes longer than it did. Accordingly, it remained totally eclipsed, according to this record, for no longer than 1 hour and 32 minutes, whereas my calculation gives 1 hour and 47 minutes—once again, 15 minutes more than was observed.

If a judgment is to be made according to what was recorded at 12:38 and at 2:52, then the