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Old 26-11-2012, 10:21 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
Bright the hawk's flight

barx1963 is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Mt Duneed Vic
Posts: 3,982
Hi George
Firstly, before anyone else does, this is quite definitely NOT an "Astrology" forum. This is an amateur astronomy forum. The "other A word" is a load of superstitious hokum.
That being said, welcome to IIS!!!
It was definitely the Moon that blocked the sun, there is nothing else large enough in the sky to do the job. What you have to remember is both the the sun and moon are moving in the sky, but they move at different rates. The suns apparent motion, for all intents and purposes is caused by the Earths rotation and it completes approximately 1 full rotation each 24 hours. The moons motion is partly the earths rotation and partly its own orbit. As both the earths rotation and the moons orbit, are in the same direction, it actually travels through the sky in an east-west direction due to the Earths rotation, but in a west to east direction due to its orbit. As a result its apparent motion through the sky is slower than the Suns. Thus it travels, relative to the sun in a west to east direction.
Voila!

Very good question though!!

Malcolm
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