Hsi and Ho

The first report of a solar eclipse appeared in Chinese records. The eclipse came without warning, according to legend, because the royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho, were too drunk to make the necessary computations. For this dereliction of duty they were promptly executed.

I have never heard about such a fact -- however this is quoted from Isaac Asimov so it should be reliable.

Peaceful eclipse

On May 28, 585 BC, as the Medes and Lydians were advancing into battle, the sun was suddenly blotted from the sky by an eclipse. Both sides were so frightened that they packed up their equipment and promptly went home.

According to the historian Herodotus, Thales had used his knowledge of Babylonian astronomy to forecast this (solar) eclipse.

Astronomer curate

The English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks was also a curate. One day he calculated that the next transit of Venus across the sun would occur on November 24, 1639 - which fell on a Sunday. On the historic day, Horrocks plowed through his services with extraordinary speed before racing off through the fields to his instruments. Horrocks arrived just in time to make his crucial observations.

Before the 2007's partial eclipse (on March 19) took place, I was on presentation of an English class. I, too, finished with speed (though not "extraordinary") and asked the professor if I can leave for the eclipse. My request was approved and I rushed back to dormitary for my instruments.

Stellar insight

One day during the Peloponnesian War, as Pericles was setting out to sea, an eclipse occurred and the ship's captain became too frightened to proceed. Pericles stepped forward, removed his cloak, and threw it over the captain's head.

"Does this frighten you?" he asked. "No," the captain replied. "Then what difference is there between the two events," Pericles asked, "except that the sun is covered by a larger object than my cloak?"

Columbus's magic

While anchored off Jamaica in 1504, Christopher Columbus found himself in dire straits. Though his supplies were running low, the Jamaican Indians refused to sell him any more food. Consulting his almanac, Columbus noticed that a lunar eclipse was due a few days later. On the appointed day, he summoned the Jamaican leaders and warned them that he would blot out the moon that very evening if his demands for food were not promptly met. The Jamaicans only laughed at him - until later that night when the eclipse began. As the moon disappeared before their eyes, they visited Columbus in a state of terror, whereupon he agreed to stop his magic in exchange for food. The offer was accepted and the moon "restored."

Another unconfirmed story is also about an explorer, but I have forgot his name. He wanted to copy Columbus's success and told the aborigine that the moon will be blotted out in the evening. "Oh, don't worry," the aborigine replied, "it will restored automatically."

Cannelloni on Mars!

One day in 1877, it was reported that Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli had observed, through his telescope, canals on the surface of Mars. This apparent evidence of the existence of a Martian civilisation inspired H. G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds, which, in turn, inspired Orson Welles's famous radio news bulletin hoax (which led thousands of listeners across America to believe that they were actually listening to the live report of a martian invasion).

The ultimate cause of all the excitement? Schiaparelli's report of Martian channels ("canali"), possibly carved by ancient rivers or glaciers, was mistranslated into English as "canals." Despite Schiaparelli's protestations, many astronomers latched onto the notion of life on Mars, and public interest naturally exploded.

Wise guy

Alfonso the Wise was famed for his patronage of the arts and sciences, for his revision of the Castilian legal code, for his sponsorship of the translation of many Arabic works, and for his compilation of the "Alfonsine Tables" (which, published on the date of his accession to the throne, remained the most authoritative planetary tables in existence for some three hundred years).

Because they were based upon a (then-prevalent but erroneous) Ptolemaic (geocentric) scheme, however, many complicated calculations were required to render the tables usable. Indeed, Alfonso is said to have remarked that, had God consulted him during the six days of creation, he might have recommended a less complicated design.

A good excuse when being not able to solve mathematic problems...

Space cadet

In 2003, NASA's John Rummel became the agency's official "planetary protection officer." His responsibility? To safeguard Earth from alien life-forms by quarantining extraterrestrial samples until they are proven safe for scientific study, and to safeguard the rest of the solar system from cross-contamination with Earth's microorganisms (which could inadvertently be transported by space probes).

Rummel was serious about his mandate, and had his department's motto printed on bumper stickers: "All of the planets, all of the time."

"What we worry about, of course, is not that we would find a virus that is predisposed to parasitize organisms," Rummel explained, "but something that might have a way of life that might not be recognized by our defence mechanisms. The unknown unknowns are the ones that will get you."

Mi Fa Mi

Johannes Kepler inherited incredibly accurate astronomical records from his mentor Tycho Brahe and in 1610 began to use telescopes to make observations of his own - observations which led both to his three laws of planetary motion and to his support of Copernicus' heliocentric model of the solar system.

Oddly, Kepler also believed in the Pythagorean theory that each planet emitted characteristic notes (the "music of the spheres"). The notes sounded by Earth, according to Kepler? Mi, fa, and mi - indicating misery, famine... and misery.

"We now believe," string theorist Michio Kaku declared some 400 years later, "that the mind of God is music resonating through 10-dimensional hyperspace." Indeed, in May 2001, three groups of scientists produced evidence that the Big Bang yielded a series of low tones (dubbed the "music of creation"), which still echo through the cosmos.

God love music -- this is not simply an anecdote I think, this is the truth.

Search for Pluto

Clyde Tombaugh's search for a trans-Neptunian planet (one with an orbit beyond that of Neptune) was not an easy one. Tombaugh often found himself at the Lowell Observatory struggling with photographic plates containing as many as 400,000 stars. His mission? To painstakingly compare several such plates - and see whether any of the dots had moved.

With computer, my task is much more easier than poor Tombaugh. However, I have never been able to spot a 13.9mag. new asteroid! (Or, "plutoid")

Swift's prediction

1726 saw the appearance of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, a fictional work containing the following passage: "They [the Laputians] have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars, whereof the innermost is distant from the center of the primary planet exactly three of its diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the center of Mars, which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies."

Incredibly, Swift accurately described the two moons of Mars - more than 150 years before they were discovered.

Incredibly!

Deep thought

Scientists in Cambridge spent three years calculating one of the fundamental keys to the universe - The Hubble Constant [the velocity at which a typical galaxy is receding from Earth divided by its distance from Earth] that determines the age of the universe. This process mirrored a passage in [Douglas Adams's] cult science fiction novel and radio series 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' in which an alien race programs a computer called Deep Thought to provide the ultimate answer to understanding life and the universe.

In the novel, seven and a half million years later Deep Thought comes back with the result, 42.

In an extraordinary coincidence when the Cambridge scientists finally calculated the Hubble Constant they found the answer was also 42.

"It caused quite a few laughs when we arrived at the figure 42," Dr Keith Grange later recalled, "because we're all great fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide!" (Sadly, estimates of the Hubble Constant now range between 57 and 78 kilometers per second per megaparsec.)

Causmology?

Ronald Knox once found himself embroiled in a theological argument with the scientist John Scott Haldane. "In a universe containing millions of planets," Haldane asked, "is it not inevitable that life should appear on at least one of them?"

"Sir," Knox replied, "if Scotland Yard found a body in your cabin trunk, would you tell them: 'There are millions of trunks in the world - surely one of them must contain a body?' I think they would still want to know who put it there!"

A good reason of why we are doing astronomy -- and science!

Eddington's turtle and elephant

While delivering a lecture on cosmology one day, Sir Arthur Eddington gave a brief overview of the early theories of the universe. Among others, he mentioned the Indian belief that the world rested on the back of a giant turtle, adding that it was not a particularly useful model as it failed to explain what the turtle itself was resting on.

Following the lecture Eddington was approached by an elderly lady. "You are very clever, young man, very clever," she forcefully declared, "but there is something you do not understand about Indian cosmology: it's turtles all the way down!"

Eddington once gave his Cambridge students an examination question involving "a perfectly spherical elephant, whose mass may be neglected..."

I have read about Eddington's turtle on Hawking's A brief history of Time (I am not sure if I type it right), but it is slightly different from the one here. However, I prefer this one as it is more enjoyable.

These anecdotes are citing from www.anecdotage.com.