Originally Posted by
rachel120
Which is why the ancient Chinese would beat drums to scare away the dragon eating the sun.
I do have to wonder how many people had an eclipse sneaking up on them. It seems that a lot of ancient cultures placed a great importance on tracking the sun and the moon and had incredible accuracy.
After how many 10s of thousands of years of study and accumulated data? Until the very 1st eclipse that was actually predicted to happen they All snuck up on us. "Hey... does it look funny to you... WHOLLY CRAP! Go grab one of the kids to sacrifice, quick. Pick an ugly one." It was 10:20 am or about when totality happened for me in eastern Oregon, probably in the high 70s. The drop in temperature was amazing. Can't imagine what it must be like when it happens in the hottest part of the day.