From SOLARECLIPSES-owner@AULA.COM Sun Jan 14 00:48:16 2001 From: "janita hill" <janitah@senet.com.au> To: <SOLARECLIPSES@AULA.COM> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 16:00:44 +1030 Subject: [SE] SELENELION Ha! One for all those wordsmiths out there: (Taken from my local Society chat line) cheers, Janita Hill This note from Duncan Steel about the lunar eclipse & sun sighting on jan 10, contains a comment by his friend Graham Waddington on the historical aspects of this type of observation. (Dr. Tony Beresford) ======================================= I am told that seeing the Sun plus eclipsed Moon in the sky is called a selenelion... The following is from my informant. GW has a DPhil in astrophysics but works in other things. Duncan =============================================== >From Graeme Waddington (Oxford, UK): >I compiled a list of observations of these selenelions. The best one was >from France at the >end of the 19th century (or beginning of the 20th) where the eclipsed moon >was seen above the horizon with the sun still visible when the moon was >something like 98% eclipsed. The most documented one was due to Payen in >1668 - I have a microfilm of the Bodlean's copy of his report. Seem to >recall that Hevelius saw one from Danzig and that Kepler tried to see one >when he was in Linz but failed. >I am told that seeing the Sun plus eclipsed Moon in the sky is >called a selenelion. Does the pronunciation of that word resemble the name of a certain well-known Canadian singer? And can it be used legitimately in a game of Scrabble? (Fraser Farrell)