Reply To: Eclipse ???

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#2275350

I am thinking that eclipse is there to arose our curiosity (as cheruvim symbolize) and interest in creation.

First, the existence of eclipse is not remarkable. Any planet having satellites would have those satellites crossing paths with the sun, unless those moons were close to 90 degree orbit. But having just one moon (the only planet in solar system) and moon and sun visibly similar size is really remarkable making solar eclipse so spectacular. Looking at a little moon crossing the sun from Jupiter is not really a big deal.

So, when people observe sun and moon separate, you only see a 2-D picture, you don’t think about the distance much. But when you figure out that moon crosses in front of the sun, then you start thinking about 3-D. In fact, several Greeks (Aristarchus and Hipparchus, for example) used solar and lunar eclipses in their attempted computations of distances to moon and sun. They got formulas right, but not always exact distances. It is sadly-remarkable that their work seem to be rejected by later “mainstream” Greek academics, instead of correcting their measurement errors. Solar eclipse was also used 100 years ago to confirm Einstein’s relativity theory.