Author: Leah Enkidu
Date: Nov 4, 2002 - 10:47

In the western world, Babylonian clay tablets that have survived since the time of this civilization in the Mesopotamian region, record the first total solar eclipse seen by observers in Ugarit on May 3, 1375 BC.

Like the Chinese observers, Babylonian astrologers kept careful records about celestial goings-on including the motions of Mercury, Venus the Sun and the Moon which survive from tablets dating from 1700 to 1681 BC.

Later records identified a total solar eclipse on July 31, 1063 BC that 'turned day into night', and the famous eclipse of June 15, 763 BC recorded by Assyrian observers in Nineveh.
Babylonian astronomers are credited with having discovered the 223-month period for lunar eclipses.