Kepler's Complete Works, Vol. I (Opera Omnia)

an even greater fear was instilled in them, so that they did not trust the Council The Council of Trent (1545–1563), which aimed to address the challenges of the Protestant Reformation., but rather, for the sake of religious peace—and even without the previous delay—demanded to be assured until the Council met; otherwise, they would not contribute to the Emperor's war funds. Through this, the nations gradually slid into the Schmalkaldic War 1546–1547; a conflict between the forces of Emperor Charles V and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League., in which the Protestant princes and estates were finally defeated in the year 1546.

To further incite these matters, it also happened that in the year 1544, in the second month after the eclipse, Ludwig, Elector Palatine Ludwig V, r. 1508–1544. died, succeeded in the Electorate by his brother Frederick, who changed the religion in his lands. No less significant was the Elector of Cologne Hermann von Wied, who attempted to reform the Archbishopric of Cologne toward Protestantism. at that time, who continued appointing Evangelical preachers within the Archbishopric of Cologne. Because of this, he fell into a dangerous dispute with the Cathedral Chapter and was summoned to Rome by the Pope (who, alongside the Emperor, had taken the side of the Chapter). Likewise, Duke Ludwig in Bavaria died, succeeded by his brother Wilhelm.

I have outlined the state of Europe as it was in the year 1548, before the appearance of the eclipse, at some length for a reason: for I leave it to each individual to decide to what they wish to attribute the events that followed—to the eclipse, to this political state as a necessary consequence, or to both together.

In the year 1560, on the 21st of August, there occurred in Coimbra original: Conymbria in the Kingdom of Portugal at high noon such a total darkening of the sun that no one could see to walk even a foot's breadth forward. Indeed, the birds in the air were so suddenly overtaken by the moon's shadow in mid-flight that they fell to the ground as if fainting or dead, as Maestlin Michael Maestlin (1550–1631), Kepler’s professor of astronomy. recounts from Clavius Christopher Clavius (1538–1612), a Jesuit astronomer and key architect of the Gregorian calendar.. It lasted as long as one might pray two or three Our Fathers A common early modern way to measure short durations of time.. In Cologne on the Rhine, the sun was by no means fully covered; nevertheless, it became so dark that the clergy could not continue singing their vespers, nor could they recognize one another in the choir. The purity of the sky around the sun, which rarely happens, must have contributed significantly to the darkness of the eclipse. In Vienna, Austria, Tilemann Stella and Paulus Fabricius saw no more than five and a half digits original: sechsthalb Zölle; "digits" were a measurement of the sun's diameter divided into 12 parts. darkened at 1:40 in the afternoon.

My calculation based on Tycho Brahe, by means of necessary correction, places the meridian 21 1/2 degrees west of Uraniborg Tycho Brahe’s famous observatory on the island of Hven. and at a polar altitude latitude of 40 degrees. This yields the visible conjunction at only 22 or 35 minutes before 12 o'clock at high noon, and for me, the sun is fully covered, for the moon on this occasion appears broader than the sun.

And because both lights the sun and moon were in the 8th degree of Virgo, near the Dragon’s Tail The descending node of the moon’s orbit, where it crosses the ecliptic., the shadow of the moon did not touch Europe further, but came from America over the sea and ran toward the Orient and the south over Africa, Egypt, and Judea.

What followed the great solar eclipse of August 21, 1560.

Although the moon's shadow did not touch Europe further, Europe nevertheless did not lack for the passing of three kings. For there died...