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Description

The First Eclipse To Be The Subject of Predictive Maps

Nice example of Doppelmayr's eclipse map, showing a comprehensive display of lunar and solar eclipse models.

At the center of the map is a depiction of Eurasia with the track of the solar eclipse of 1706.

Solar Eclipse of 1706

The solar eclipse on May 12, 1706 was a total eclipse.

The astronomic event, part of the Saros 133 cycle, took place during the Spanish War of Succession, crossing Spain, France and Northern Italy.  

The eclipse was the first to be the subject of predictive maps. Unlike the famous Halley's eclipse of 1715, the eclipse was not total in England. However, John Flamsteed, based on a letter by a Captayn Stanyan in Bern, reported to the Royal Society that, for the first time to his knowledge, someone "took notice of a red streak preceding the emersion of the sun's body from a total eclipse", erroneously attributing it to the atmosphere of the Moon.

Also, Johann Jakob Scheuchzer reported on the eclipse's "red streak" relating it to the Moon's atmosphere.  The eclipse also coincided with the Grand Alliance victory at Barcelona and the siege of Turin, and was widely interpreted as the “eclipse of Sun King”, i. e. the dimming of Louis XIV, king of France, while the French court officially regarded the eclipse only as a scientific phenomenon.