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

Popes died one after another. Due to a long-lasting storm, a terrible famine arose in Italy. In Saxony, great unrest occurred because of changes to several church ceremonies, during which Elector Christian Christian I, Elector of Saxony, died in 1591 passed away; some of his councilors were imprisoned, and here and there in the cities, riots broke out—supposedly against the Calvinists—and were punished.

In the year 1598, on March 7th (New Style) and February 25th (Old Style), there was also a great solar eclipse in the 17th degree of Pisces in the midheaven The "midheaven" is the highest point on the ecliptic at a specific time and location (Archduke Ferdinand). I observed this at Graz, so that the refraction of light original: "Scheinbruch" stood exactly to the right. At that time it was 23 minutes past ten o’clock, therefore the actual beginning was approximately at 10:20 AM; it ended five minutes before 1:00 PM, so that the entire duration was approximately two and a half hours. Optics, p. 383 (Vol. II, p. 367).

At Uraniborg The island observatory of Tycho Brahe it began at 10:08 AM and ended at 12:20 PM; it was estimated at 9¾ points Astronomical "points" or "digits" measure the magnitude of an eclipse; 12 points indicate a total eclipse. This, however, refers to the deceptive appearance the visual observation uncorrected for parallax: in reality, the remaining part was smaller and the eclipse greater.

At Stargard in Pomerania, it lasted 2 hours and 23 minutes. At Viborg in Jutland, only a narrow horn remained visible at the bottom of the sun. At Wittenberg, a bright ring was seen around the moon, above as well as below. Thus, the moon’s shadow passed more toward the north over Norway across the globe.

My calculation gives—for a polar altitude latitude of 47° 2′ and 4½ degrees east of Uraniborg, which is at Graz—the beginning at 10:02 AM, the end at 12:27 PM, the middle at 11:12 AM, and a magnitude of 9⅙ points.

At Uraniborg, however, I find the middle to be at 10:59 AM and a magnitude of 11⅜ points, which matches the observation from Jutland; for there, no more than one minute remains for me, which is ⅔ of a digit original: "Zolls," referring to the astronomical digit. When I use the physical equation of time: a correction applied to solar time to account for the Earth's non-circular orbit and axial tilt, the beginning at Graz fell at 10:27 AM and the end at 12:52 PM, almost exactly as was observed.

Consequences of the Eclipse of the Year 1598.

Following this eclipse, the religious peace in France The Edict of Nantes, 1598, peace between the Pope and the Duchy of Ferrara, and peace between France and Spain ensued: which, even now, after such harmful and ruinous wars, is not impossible and is much to be desired. Conversely, the city of Aachen was placed under the Imperial Ban and the sentence was carried out. Emperor Rudolf II held Great Varadin now Oradea, Romania against the Turks, while the Turks held Buda part of modern-day Budapest against the Emperor. There was an earthquake in Thuringia. The Spanish Colonel Admiral of Aragon entered the Duchy of Jülich with a great military force; to meet him, the Princes of the Empire also entered into a state of war readiness. The King of Poland Sigismund III Vasa made an unfortunate expedition into Sweden. King Philip II of Spain passed away. In the lands of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, the exercise of the Augsburg Confession: the right of Lutherans to practice their faith according to the 1530 confession was suspended, and all inhabitants who were not native landowners and who refused to be reformed i.e., convert to Catholicism were expelled.