Note 68 — CHAP. XVIII. Of Eclipses: Their Number and Periods. A large Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Eclipses.

There are two antient Eclipses of the Moon, recorded by Ptolemy from Hipparchus, which afford an undeniable proof of the Moon’s acceleration. The first of these was observed at Babylon, December the 22d, in the year before Christ 383: when the Moon began to be eclipsed about half an hour before the Sun rose, and the Eclipse was not over before the Moon set: but by our best Astronomical Tables, the Moon was set at Babylon half an hour before the Eclipse began; in which case, there could have been no possibility of observing it. The second Eclipse was observed at Alexandria, September the 22d, the year before Christ 201; where the Moon rose so much eclipsed, that the Eclipse must have begun about half an hour before she rose: whereas by our Tables the beginning of this Eclipse was not till about 10 minutes after the Moon rose at Alexandria. Had these Eclipses begun and ended while the Sun was below the Horizon, we might have imagined, that as the antients had no certain way of measuring time, they might have been so far mistaken in the hours, that we could not have laid any stress on the accounts given by them. But, as in the first Eclipse the Moon was set, and consequently the Sun risen, before it was over; and in the second Eclipse the Sun was set, and the Moon not risen, till some time after it began; these are such circumstances as the observers could not possibly be mistaken in. Mr. Struyk in the following Catalogue, notwithstanding the express words of Ptolemy, puts down these two Eclipses as observed at Athens; where they might have been seen as above, without any acceleration of the Moon’s motion: Athens being 20 degrees West of Babylon, and 7 degrees West of Alexandria.