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Lot 377
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Eclipse! 1811
Eclipse! 1811
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Description:

Eclipse! 1811

This letter by historian and amateur astronomer Epaphras Hoyt shares details of the solar eclipse of September 17, 1811, as viewed from Deerfield, Massachusetts, and also mentions his observations of the Great Comet of 1811.

EPAPHRAS HOYT, Autograph Letter Signed, to Andrew Ellicott, September 26, 1811, Deerfield, Massachusetts. 4 pp., 8" x 12.625". Some toning; vertical and horizontal folds; very good.

Excerpts
"Without the honour of a personal acquaintance I venture to trouble you with the following observations, made in this village, on the solar eclipse of the 17th instant. This I am induced to do from your known attention to subjects of this nature, and from a belief of the importance of communicating and preserving observations of this kind, made in different parts of our country, especially in those where the geographical position of few places are settled with precision.
"That you may judge of the correctness of the observations I think it necessary to name the instruments and insert the equal altitudes used for regulating the clock and for ascertaining its rate of going.
"The telescope is an achromatic refractor, finished with a [pencil?] micrometer I mounted on a brass stand—magnifying power about 75. It gives a very distinct vision and I believe it a good one for its size. The altitudes were taken with a ten inch best metal sextant, divided by nonius to 30 seconds. This was carefully adjusted, previous to observation, according to the methods given in Adams' Graphical Essays. The sun's image was taken from a vessel of water secured from the wind."

"Beginning of eclipse, or first contact of limbs    0..43..07 } by clock
"End of eclipse                                                   3..47..59 } afternoon
"When the contact was first perceived 3 seconds were supposed to have elapsed before it was certain to the mind."

"The equations for equal altitudes are calculated by the formula of Mr. Dunbar, page 260, Vol 6, of the Transactions of your Philosophical society."

"Latitude of the Academy, in the centre of this village, by a man of several observations of sun and stars 42°..31' N. Longitude, deduced from an eclipse of the moon Jany 15th 1805, west of Greenwich, 72°..23' 15". Probably not exact, for besides the uncertainty of this method, the observations were made without an astronomical telescope."

"P.S. I have made a number of observations on the Comet which now decorates our northern sky (first seen here Sept 5 inst)."

Historical Background
The solar eclipse of September 17, 1811, was a relatively long annular eclipse with a duration at greatest eclipse of 6 minutes and 51 seconds. It was an annular eclipse, in which the edge of the sun remains visible as a bright ring around the moon, with an eclipse magnitude of 0.9345, meaning that more than 93 percent of the sun's diameter was occulted by the moon at the area of greatest eclipse. The point of greatest eclipse passed over the eastern United States near the modern cities of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; Morgantown, West Virginia; and north of Charlottesville, Richmond, Williamsburg, and Norfolk, Virginia; but a partial eclipse could be viewed in most areas of the eastern United States. In Boston, the eclipse had an eclipse magnitude of 0.775, and in Hartford, Connecticut, the magnitude was 0.801, so the magnitude in Deerfield, Massachusetts, would have been similar to that in those two cities.

The comet to which Hoyt refers in his postscript was the Great Comet of 1811 (C/1811 F1), a comet visible to the naked eye for approximately 260 days, the longest recorded visibility until the Comet Hale-Bopp appeared in 1997. It was at its brightest in October 1811, when it was 1.2 Astronomical Units from the Earth, or roughly 1.2 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. It was first observed on March 25, 1811, by French astronomer Honoré Flaugergues, but was difficult to see from May to August because of its low altitude. It was much more visible in the evening sky by September, and its brightness faded by January 1812, though some astronomers continued to observe it with telescopes until August 1812.

Artists sketched and writers mentioned the comet, including Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace and Victor Hugo in Les Misérables. Many people around the world thought it represented a portent for events ranging from Napoleon’s invasion of Russia to the War of 1812 to an attempt to overthrow the Qing dynasty in China. Shawnee leader Tecumseh thought the comet was a favorable omen to bring southern tribes into his confederacy of Native Americans.

Epaphras Hoyt (1765-1850) was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts. He held a variety of positions during his career, including surveyor, postmaster, justice of the peace, register of deeds, and high sheriff. He was also a member of the 1820 state constitutional convention. He rose to the rank of major general of the Massachusetts militia and devoted his life to improving the militia system, writing two books on military science and others on military history. He also published on astronomy and geography. Except for brief sojourns in western New York and Boston, Hoyt lived for most of his life in Deerfield. In addition, he wrote an article on astronomy for a textbook known as “Dickinson’s geography” and published in Benjamin Silliman’s American Journal of Science, including an article written in 1815: “Astronomical observations made near the center of the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts,” in which Hoyt calculated the town’s longitude by using a sextant and observing a solar eclipse

Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) was born in Pennsylvania into a Quaker family of modest means. In 1773, he married Sarah Brown (1756/8-1827), and they had ten children. When the Revolutionary War began, Ellicott enlisted as an officer in the Maryland militia despite his Quaker background. During the war, he rose to the rank of major. After the war, he worked as a surveyor on extending the Mason-Dixon line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. He taught mathematics at the Baltimore Academy and was elected to the Maryland General Assembly in 1786. He led other surveys in Pennsylvania and moved to Philadelphia in 1789, where President George Washington commissioned him to survey lands between Lake Erie and Pennsylvania to determine the western border of New York. He surveyed the District of Columbia and the future city of Washington in 1791-1792, with the assistance of two of his brothers and African American astronomer Benjamin Banneker. In the late 1790s, Ellicott surveyed the boundary between the United States and Spanish territories along the Gulf of Mexico. He served as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Land Office from 1801 to 1813, when he accepted a position as professor of mathematics at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. In conjunction with his surveying work, Ellicott also made and reported astronomical observations.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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