Despite the correctly predicted clouds, I managed to take a few photographs of this morning’s partial solar eclipse:
This was the fourth time I’d witnessed such an eclipse. The first time was when I was at university in Durham in the 1980s. The second time was in Taormina, Sicily in 2006. The third time, ten years ago, like today, was from our driveway in Hebden Bridge:
The Taormina eclipse was the most memorable because it was the most unexpected. Jen and I were sitting drinking coffee in a cobbled square when we noticed a number of locals gazing up into the sky. Correctly concluding an eclipse was taking place, we managed to improvise a pinhole eclipse-viewer using the hole in my hat and our copy of the Guardian newspaper:
When I say the Taormina eclipse was unexpected, I obviously mean it was unexpected to us. That eclipse, like all the others, had been confidently and accurately predicted by the sort of scientists who predict these things. Had the predicted eclipses not occurred bang on schedule, and had the scientists’ data and calculations subsequently been re-checked and found to be free of errors, the science would have been wrong, and we would have had to re-think our understanding of the universe. But the predictions proved accurate, so chalk up four more for science!
Had this morning’s correctly predicted clouds not obscured the eclipse, however, we wouldn’t have had to re-think our understanding of the universe. The weather is far more difficult to predict than eclipses. Meteorologists tend only to predict the percentage likelihoods of particular weather-events occurring. Hopefully, these predictions will become more accurate over time as the meteorologists amass more and more data, try to learn from their mistakes, and tweak their models. Chalk that up for science too!
But as for recent headlines like these (which I’m not going to dignify by providing links)…
- 2 zodiac signs will likely receive luck and abundance during a partial Solar Eclipse 2025
- The solar eclipse in Aries is happening—find out what it means for your zodiac sign!
- Love Horoscope for each Zodiac Sign on March 29
- With the eclipse in Aries on March 29, stark truths will be revealed
…if the ‘predictions’ made in such articles proved inaccurate, will the people who still believe in this nonsense feel compelled to re-think their understanding of astrology? Or will the people who made them try to learn from their mistakes? Somehow I doubt it. That’s not how pseudo-science works.
In which case, chalk up four more for bullshit!
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