Solar eclipse of August 19, 1887
A total solar eclipse occurred on Friday, 19 August 1887. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.
It was visible across Europe, Asia, and Japan.
Observations
The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev ascended in a balloon near Moscow to observe this eclipse.Partiality at sunrise from Berlin, Germany |
Russian writer Anton Chekhov published the short story "From the Diary of a Hot-Tempered Man" six weeks before the eclipse passed through Russia. The story includes a major section about the frustrations of a man who is trying to make a great variety of observations during the short interval of totality. In the story the eclipse date is given as 7 August 1887, but this is not an error. This is the correct date on the Julian Calendar, then in force in Russia, which did not convert to the Gregorian calendar until after the establishment of the USSR.