The eclipse of July 19, 418, was the first known record of a comet that was seen during a total eclipse. Credit: NASA/Gopalswamy
Takeaway Keyway:
- A total solar eclipse occurred on July 19, 418 AD
- A mysterious light, perhaps a comet, was seen during this eclipse.
- Reports from Europe and China confirm the sighting of the comet.
- This event is the first registered instance of a comet during a total solar eclipse.
On July 19, 418 AD marks the first total solar eclipse (of which we have a record) during which a comet was seen. The historian of the Church of Turkish origin Philostorgius wrote in book XII of Epitome Historiae ecclesiasticae: “When theodosius had reached adolescence, on the nineteenth of july at about the eightth hour, the Sun Was So Completely eclipsed that stars appeared. There an appeared in the sky with the sunda white in eclipse a cone-shaped light, which some out of ignorance called a comet. But it showed none of the features of a comet. That it was, therefore the event drops like the first relationships of a comet seen during the total phase of a solar eclipse.
