Starship Asterisk*

The moon will block the sun in a potentially spectacular solar eclipse this week - a celestial event that will transform the sun into a cosmic "ring of fire" in the daytime sky.

The ring-shaped solar eclipse , known as an annular eclipse, will occur Thursday and Friday (May 9 and 10) Eastern time. Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible in certain parts of Australia and the Southern Pacific Ocean, where the local time will be Friday.

"Solar eclipses can be inspirational to students and others, so it is interesting to have everyone view the eclipse, but only safe methods of viewing should be used," Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College and chair of the International Astronomical Union's working group on eclipses, said in a statement.

During annular solar eclipses, the moon casts a shadow on the face of the Earth when it passes between the planet and the star. Because of its orbit, however, the moon still appears about 4.5 percent smaller than the sun, creating the distinct ring in the sky, Joe Rao, a SPACE.com contributor and meteorologist said.

This week's solar eclipse comes on the heels of a partial lunar eclipse that shadowed the moon above Central Asia, Western Australia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Another minor lunar eclipse will occur on May 24.

These aren't the only eclipses of 2013. On Nov. 3, a rare hybrid solar eclipse - an annular eclipse that transitions into a total eclipse - will be visible in the northern Atlantic Ocean and into equatorial Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur%27s_Court wrote:

[b][color=#FF0000][size=150]The actual English annular eclipse of Sept.1, 536[/size][/color][/b]

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<<Mark Twain's 1889 novel _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ is a satirical comedy that looks at 6th-Century England and its medieval culture through the eyes of Hank Morgan, a 19th-century resident of Hartford, Connecticut, who, after a blow to the head, awakens to find himself inexplicably transported back in time to early medieval England at the time of the legendary King Arthur. Hank is ridiculed at King Arthur's court for his strange appearance and dress and is sentenced by King Arthur's court to burn at the stake on 21 June. By a stroke of luck, the date of the burning coincides with a historical solar eclipse in the year 528, of which Hank had learned in his earlier life. While in prison, he sends the boy Clarence to inform the King that he will blot out the sun if he is executed. Hank believes the current date to be 20 June; however, it is actually the 21st when he makes his threat, the day that the eclipse will occur at 12:03 p.m. When the King decides to burn him, the eclipse catches Hank by surprise. But he quickly uses it to his advantage and convinces the people that he caused the eclipse. He makes a bargain with the King, is released, and becomes the second most powerful person in the kingdom.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camlann wrote:
<<The Battle of Camlann is reputed to have been the final battle of King Arthur, in which he either died or was fatally wounded fighting his enemy Mordred (who was, in some later versions of the tale, his son or his nephew). The earliest known reference to the battle of Camlann is an entry in the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, recording the battle in the year 537.>>