By: Caroline Wells Longardner
This Eclipse is expected to begin in this area approximately 1:54 p.m. and last until 4:25 p.m. The total Solar Eclipse will be from approximately 3:09 p.m. to 3:13 p.m.
The Northern limit (line) of the total solar eclipse April 8, 2024 will go thru Paulding Co., thru Bowling Green, and thru Toledo, Ohio. The Southern line of the Total Eclipse will go thru Middletown (South of Dayton); North of Columbus, just South of Wooster and South of Akron. It has been 218 yrs. since the last total eclipse in Ohio & the next one will be in 2099.
This historic event is a once-in-a-lifetime experience – don’t let it slip by. On April 8 the TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE will cut across a 124-mile wide band of Ohio. This means that the moon completely blocks the sun for a few moments and it can also reveal a thin circle of pink around the moon which is the sun’s chromosphere and the sun’s corona, which also appears as streams of white light. It is covering dozens of other Ohio counties, also.
Be sure to have a pair of solar eclipse glasses (approved ones) for each person who will be watching the event. (THIS IS IMPORTANT). The libraries have them and other places for free. Our Paulding Co. Library is hosting an eclipse event from noon – 4 p.m. Glasses will be available. The Auglaize Canoe and Kayak is hosting a Total Eclipse Paddle event starting at 11:00 a.m. (unlimited time paddle trip on the river). Reservations necessary at 419-594-3456 or visiting Auglaize canoe.com.
Solar eclipses (total or partial) happen on earth somewhere on Earth about every 18 months with the location varying according on the alignment and location of the planets involved. It usually lasts no more than 4 minutes, 28 seconds (the longest recorded were just over 7 minutes).
Solar Eclipses have been important historic and noteworthy events down thru history. Even before 2,000 years ago in China and in 1375 B.C.E. Solar eclipses occurred and were written about on clay tablets. Babylonians could even tell when the next ones were coming according to their records. In the Middle Ages astronomical eclipses and phenomena were recorded like comets and planet positions.
Down thru the ages many superstitions were connected with solar eclipses and weather occurrences. Wars were predicted as well as death, destruction and signs of angry omens from the Gods. Many times it came true like the death of King Henry I of England in 1133 AD which came at the same time as a total solar eclipse on Aug 2. Then after his death, England went into a civil war.
TECUMSEH, the Shawnee, witnessed the Eclipse in Ohio on June 16, 1806 in Ohio and the surrounding area with many others. He predicted this event as he had been told about it by James Galloway sometime earlier. Tecumseh’s reply was “Our elders know much of the (another?) Black Sun. They call it “Mukutaaweethe Keelswah”. It is a sign of “war trouble”. Tecumseh’s brother, Tenskwatawa, and Tecumseh were living near Greenville, Ohio at the time of the eclipse. (They had then set up a town called Prophetstown on the border of the treaty line.) After the Prophet spread the news of the eclipse, more Native Americans came to Prophetstown. They then moved to Lafayette, Indiana.
When the Eclipse occurred in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Wm. Wells stepped outside the door of his house looked up and muttered, “Damn! There’ll be hell to pay now.”
During the eclipse, in hundreds of Indian towns throughout the Middle Ground from the Allegheny Mountains to the plains beyond the Mississippi, the people kept unusually quiet in all their Indian camps, hunting camps and fishing camps, although some were even traveling to the Great Lakes and the Prophet’s Holy town in Ohio. Wildlife and birds were spooked by the sudden daytime darkness.
Tecumseh and the Prophet (his brother) prayed. Even during the day the sun was black with a shimmering halo around it and stars could be seen. People waled and demanded that he bring back the sun. The last total solar eclipse that happened in Ohio was referred to as “Tecumseh’s eclipse” and it happened on June 16, 1806. His brother Tenskwatawa was considered “a false prophet”, but it seemed odd that they both knew it was coming.
Tecumseh would eventually die in the Battle of Thames in October 1813. History says that Tenskwatwa lost his “spiritual influence” and died on a reservation in 1836 in Kansas.
Other reading materials available on this celestial event are: ” The Fur Country” by Jules Verne; “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain; and several other books available at the library. Hist. Novel by : by J. A. Thom-“Panther in the Sky”.
