(an opinion article and a challenge)

Do you like challenges? That is one of them. The quarantine is rather long…

Humanity is always interested in secrets. Thousands of years ago, the Romans, the Slavs, and the Chinese witnessed the solar eclipse for a few minutes and thought a lot about why it happened. This is remembered in old manuscripts and described vividly, especially the fear that people felt thinking about the end of the world. Was it Apocalypse or Revelation?

But the end of the world did not happen. It was constantly postponed. Smart astronomers noticed the appearance and disappearance of new stars, big and small explosions, and realized that the Sun blackout was just a ‘hide and seek’ play of our mysterious Moon and sparkling Sun.

For many thousands of years of  human history, the Sun eclipses were considered to be the harbingers of great calamities and disasters. People thrilled from appalling awe, prophets predicted Judgment Days! But times have changed, knowledge has multiplied, and in a historically insignificant period, from the forerunner of catastrophes, the short-lived disappearances of the sun have turned for humans into a splendid show, arranged by the Greatest Showbiz Superstar – Mother Nature…

The Sun blackout is a phenomenon where one celestial body temporarily closes the light from another celestial body. It relates to solar, lunar, and other stars and planets.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is located between the observer and the Sun and closes it.

There are currently mathematical models that accurately describe the motion of the Moon, the Earth, and other planets. Therefore, scientists can easily calculate the eclipses that will occur in the nearest future.

However, there are phenomena that scientists have not yet been able to explain. The unexplained Black Day phenomenon occurred in North America on May 19, 1780, at 13.25 pm local time, when the Sun not knowing why looked like “bloody mayhem”  in the form of England (150 degrees from the Sun). And such events are not alone. Is it a kind of hallucination or some magic mystery?

However, even now, blackouts are thought to be big events. On the one hand, they prove that the Earth is spherical, on the other hand, that our lives are influenced by the huge celestial objects. In 2020 there will be 6 eclipses – 2 solar and 4 monthly.

Any eclipse is a great event for science, culture, and art. Scientists research the behavior of mentally ill people, including vampires, pathological murders, and other freaks. Artists paint their pictures about werewolves, vampires, and other weirdos in the background of blurred blackouts.

Stephen King wrote ‘Dolores Clayborn’, the book describing a man who turned into a slashing slayer when a solar eclipse struck. Therefore, this phenomenon occurs not only in science  but also in literature.

So, I think that when the Moon covers the Sun, we get a sun blackout, and what do we call it when the Dark Forces do that? Doesn`t it sound like a challenge? Don`t you want to write about it?