The solar eclipse on May 12, 1706 was a
total eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...
.
The astronomical event, part of the Saros 133 cycle, took place during the
Spanish War of Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish ...
, crossing Spain, France and Northern Italy: for this reason it was seen at the time as a metaphor and a premonitory sign of the decline of King
Louis XIV of France
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
(known as the ''Sun King'') "occulted" by the
Great Alliance.
Description
The eclipse was visible in north and west Africa along with all Europe and its islands, Asia including the most of Middle East and almost all of Siberia and a small part of northeastern North America and the northern islands. It was also visible in the Atlantic. A very small portion occurred in the Southern Hemisphere almost entirely over the ocean.
It was part of
solar saros 133.
The umbral portion which was as far as 242 km (150 mi), it included areas that were 150 miles (250 km) northwest of the Cape Verdean island of Santo Antão (then a Portuguese colony) in the Atlantic, the Spanish controlled
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
,
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
including
Casablanca
Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...
,
Rabat
Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...
,
Tangier
Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...
and
Tetouan,
Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
including
Málaga
Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...
,
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
and
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
including
Grenoble
Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...
,
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
,
Nîmes
Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...
and
Marseilles
Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean S ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
,
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
, Danzig (now
Gdańsk
Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
), Mazuria, much of the Baltic,
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, newly founded at the time and a part of the Russian north including the Samoyedic and Yakut areas and up to Manchuria. The greatest occurred in the area between
Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
and
Lower Silesia
Lower Silesia ( ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a historical and geographical region mostly located in Poland with small portions in the Czech Republic and Germany. It is the western part of the region of Silesia. Its largest city is Wrocław.
The first ...
(now in Poland) at 51.5 N, 15.2 E at 9:35 UTC (10:35 CET) and lasted for over 4 minutes.
The eclipse showed up to 50% obscuration in Burkina Faso, Mai, Songhai, Benghazi in Libya, Ankara, Sinope, the north of the Caspian and a part of Mongolia and on the other side, northwestern Islands and the east shore of Greenland. It was 75% obscuration in places like Norway, Lapland and Zemlya and on the other side around Bissau, Syracuse in Sicily and Bucharest. Places that was 25% obscuration of the sun included Kingdom of Benin, Egypt and Babylon in Iraq (then commonly as Mesopotamia). Areas that were on the rim of the eclipse included Gabon, Darfur, Nubia, the north of the Arabian Peninsula, Persia, the Afghan Empire, Nepal, Assam and Manchurian controlled Yunnan.
The eclipse started in the middle of the Atlantic and finished at sunset in Siberia, Korea and China.
The subsolar marking was in Nubia.
Scientific and historical significance
The eclipse was the first to be the subject of predictive maps. Unlike the famous
Halley's eclipse of 1715, the eclipse was not total in England. However
John Flamsteed
John Flamsteed (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, ''Catalogus Britannicus'', and a star atlas called '' Atlas ...
, based on a letter by a Captayn Stanyan in Bern, reported to the Royal Society that, for the first time to his knowledge, someone "took notice of a red streak preceding the emersion of the sun's body from a total eclipse", erroneously attributing it to the atmosphere of the Moon.
[Lynn, W. ]
"The total eclipse of May 12th, 1706"
The Observatory, Vol. 8, p. 270–271 (1885) Also
Johann Jakob Scheuchzer
Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (2 August 1672 – 23 June 1733) was a Swiss physician and natural scientist born in Zürich. His most famous work was the ''Physica sacra'' in four volumes, which was a commentary on the Bible and included his view of ...
reported on the eclipse's "red streak" relating it to the Moon's atmosphere.
[
The eclipse took place during the very low solar activity period known as the Maunder Minimum and from accounts and drawings of the totality, it is believed the bright K-corona (the corona type normally witnessed in totality) was not visible and only the symmetrical, circular, dim F-corona was seen (the corona type which can normally be seen farther from the sun as it is greatly overshadowed by the K-corona). The eclipse also coincided with the Grand Alliance victory at Barcelona and the ]siege of Turin
The siege of Turin took place from June to September 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession. A French army led by Louis de la Feuillade besieged the Savoyard capital of Turin, whose relief by Prince Eugene of Savoy has been called th ...
, and was widely interpreted as the "eclipse of Sun King", i.e., the dimming of Louis XIV
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
, king of France, while the French court officially regarded the eclipse only as a scientific phenomenon.[Hendrik Ziegler]
Image Battles under Louis XIV: Some Reflections
pp. 32–35 , from Claydon, Tony ; Levillain, Charles-Édouard (Eds.): "Louis XIV outside in: images of the Sun King beyond France", 1661–1715, Farnham 2015.
See also
* List of solar eclipses in the 18th century
* List of solar eclipses visible from Russia
References
External links
Google interactive maps
Solar eclipse data
{{Solar eclipses
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1706 in science
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