SOLAR ECLIPSE OF A LIFETIME ON EASTER ISLAND: Oct. 2’s Annular Solar Eclipse will be the island’s first since Nov. 27, 1788, 66 years after a Dutch crew became the first Europeans to visit it on Easter Sunday. The eclipse begins at 12:24 p.m. local time; mid-eclipse occurs at 2:07 p.m. with the Sun due north at an elevation of 67°; annularity lasts 6.1 minutes. (Source: Sky&Telescope.org) The next eclipse that will be views from that location will be the Lunar Eclipse March 13-14, 2025. (Source: timeanddate.com)
Eclipses are More than a Visual Event
The effects of a Solar Eclipse are more far reaching than a time and place where the sky grows dark. The most obvious affects are birds that roost, insects that return to their burrows, and some flowers that close their petals. Meanwhile, nocturnal animals come out “for the night.” We tend to measure the event as a visual event that only lasts a few minutes. That’s far from the whole story.
The last eclipse on Easter Island was observed on an Easter Sunday. 66 years later a Solar Eclipse appears on Rosh Hashanah. Our most sacred traditions are ordered by the Signs in the Heavenly vault. The meaning of Time was discerned by a collective first-hand witness to the Time.
