Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy and dated history, with sources. Documented traditions and folklore. Modern lunar astrology · symbolic, not predictive.

18 August 1868 New Moon, 0% lit

An element found on the Sun before Earth

During a total eclipse, astronomers saw a yellow line in the Sun's spectrum that matched nothing known. They named it after the Greek for sun.

Helium was catalogued as a solar curiosity for 27 years before anyone isolated it on Earth. It remains the only element discovered somewhere other than this planet, and it took the Moon covering the Sun to spot it.

Date
18 August 1868
Moon computed for
10:00 local time, UTC+5:22
Phase
New Moon
Illuminated
0%

Source: Janssen & Lockyer, 1868; Royal Society

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