262 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard
Solar eclipse
(16th century)Lesson 3: The Sun
The Sun (Sol) is the nucleus (center) of our Solar Sys-
tem. It is a great flaming ball of gas and plasma, which
we orbit at a distance of 93 million miles. Our Sun is a
pretty average-sized star, about 880,000 miles in di-
ameter. If it were hollow, over a million Earths would
easily fit inside. Its density is just under 1½ times that
of water.
Like other stars, the Sun “pulses,” creating an 11-
year cycle of Sunspots—fringed dark holes in the outer
layers that penetrate deep into the cooler interior. From
1645 to 1715, however, no sunspots were recorded. This
period is called the Maunder Minimum, a time of ex-
ceptionally cold weather across the northern hemi-
sphere of Earth. Its cause remains unknown.
The visible surface of the Sun is called the Photo-
sphere. The next layers outward are the Chromosphere,
then the Corona. Each layer is much hotter than the
one below it. The very hot gasses in the corona gener-
ate the solar wind, blowing outward past the planets
in great spiraling waves. Periodically, gigantic Solar
flares erupt from the photosphere around cooler sun-
spot regions. Some flares extend upward more than
60,000 miles. Though flares last for only a few min-
utes to a few hours, they are among the most power-
ful events in the solar system.
The interior of the Sun is believed to be a gigantic
nuclear furnace, transforming hydrogen (“water-born”)
into helium (“Sun-stuff,” named for Helios, the Greek
Sun-God) at a temperature of millions of degrees. Four
million tons of matter are converted into energy every
second. However, such nuclear reactions should pro-
duce vast quantities of subatomic particles called neu-
trinos—yet none have ever been detected coming from
our Sun. In addition, the interior of the Sun is thou-
sands of degrees cooler than the outer layers, with the
corona being the hottest. To explain these anomalies,
some scientists are considering alternative theories of
solar mechanics. The most promising of these proposes
electrical discharges through the plasma of the Solar
corona, as if the Sun is a gigantic plasma ball.
An electrical plasma is a cloud of ions and elec-
trons that can sometimes light up and behave in un-
usual ways. Familiar examples or elec-
trical plasmas are in neon signs, light-
ning, and electric arc welders. Plasma
permeates the space that contains our
solar system. The solar wind is a
plasma. Our entire Milky Way galaxy
consists mainly of plasma. In fact 99%
of the entire universe is plasma!
The Sun generates a vast mag-
netic bubble called the heliosphere,
containing the Solar System, the so-
lar wind, and the entire solar magnetic
field. At the outermost edge of theheliosphere, called the heliopause, the solar wind meets
the interstellar sea of plasma that permeates our gal-
axy. This is the true boundary of the Solar System.Lesson 4: Eclipses
In ancient times, an eclipse—especially of the Sun—
was viewed with great fear as an ill omen. In addition
to reading the stars to predict the changing of the sea-
sons—and the times for planting, floods, droughts, and
religious festivals—one of the most important duties of
professional star-gazers was to predict eclipses. Legend
says that two Chinese astronomers who failed to predict
an eclipse in 2136 BCE were put to death as frauds.
Although the enormous
Sun is 93 million miles from
Earth, our tiny Moon (about the
size of the United States or Aus-
tralia) is only 238,000 miles away.
It is an amazing cosmic coinci-
dence that the visual diameters of
the Sun and Moon as seen from
Earth are exactly the same
size. Therefore, when the Moon
passes directly between the Earth
and the Sun, it perfectly covers the
face of the Sun, giving us a total So-
lar Eclipse. In the same way, when
the Moon is directly behind us, it
passes through the shadow of the
Earth, and we see a Lunar Eclipse.
An eclipse is a great cosmic
light show. As the Earth’s shadow
passes across the face of the Moon, the light passing
through dust in our atmosphere that gives us brilliant
sunsets can turn the Moon a blood-red. But the most
awesome spectacle of all is a total Solar Eclipse. In
this case, it is the shadow of the Moon which is pass-
ing across the face of the Earth along a narrow path. If
you can be at the center of that path—as I have been—
you will see rippling waves of shadows rushing to-
wards you across the land, as if you were underwater.
The black Lunar disk makes an ever-narrowing ring
of the Sun, until, at the last moment, the remaining
sunlight blazes forth like a
diamond (in fact, this is called
the “diamond ring” effect).
Then comes the moment
of totality, when the Moon
completely covers the Solar
disk, and you are standing in
its shadow. Suddenly, the sky
goes completely black, and
the stars shine forth. Birds cry
out and dive for night cover.
Cows moo and lie down on
the spot. A golden light shines- Spectrum 2.p65 262 1/15/2004, 9:31 AM