Eclipses

During the Year 1834, there will be four Eclipses, which will happen in the following order.

The First will be an eclipse of the Sun, on Saturday, June 7th, and visible here.
Sun Rises - 4 h. 26 min
Beginning of Eclipse - 5 h. 15 min
Middle - 5 h. 42 min
End - 6 h. 27 min
There will be about 1 ½ digits eclipsed on the Sun’s southern limb.

The Second will be an Eclipse of the Moon, on Saturday, June 21st, visible here, and total.
Moon Rises - 20th day, 7 h. 43 min
Beginning - 21st day, 2 h. 48 min
Middle - 4 h. 9 min
End - 5 h. 49 min

The Third will be of the Sun, on Sunday, November 30th, and visible here.
Beginning - 1 h. 52 min
Middle - 2 h. 53 min
End - 2 h. 54 min
1 Digit will be eclipsed on the Sun’s northern limb.

The Fourth will be an eclipse of the Moon, on Monday, December 15th, and will be visible.
Moon Rises - 7 h. 37 min
Beginning of Eclipse - 10 h. 44 min
Middle (16th day) - 0 h. 41 min
End - 2 h. 51 min
About 8 digits will be eclipsed on the Moon’s southern limb.

It is difficult to observe exactly either the beginning or ending of a lunar eclipse, even with a good telescope, because the earth’s shadow is so faint and ill-defined about the edges, that when the moon is either just touching or leaving it, the obscuration of her limb is scarcely visible; and therefore, the nicest observers can hardly be certain to a few seconds of time; but both the beginning and ending of solar eclipses are instantaneously visible.

Among the many interesting phenomena, which take place in the glorious firmament of heaven, Eclipses are surely the most august and sublime. Men in all ages and in all climes, have considered them as the most wondrous spectacles that the works of the Creator exhibit. When the majestic orbs of heaven are shrouded in darkness, all animated nature seems to mourn, and to muse with the deepest anxiety on these great events. But with what different sensations are these scenes beheld by the different characters of mankind, and how eminently do these different sensations display the great, the infinitely great superiority, which education possesses over native ignorance. For while the illiterate savage views them in silent sorrow, as presages of calamity, exhibited by an offended Deity – while he considers them as ominous of some dire misfortune to his tribe or nation, or as the certain tokens of the annihilation of the universe; the enlightened astronomer beholds them as exemplifications of an universal law, impressed upon matter by the Great Eternal; he considers them as affording luminous proofs of the permanency and durability of those laws, by which the universe is governed, and as exhibiting to admiring nations, the infinite wisdom and goodness of Almighty God.