A Partial Eclipse and a Victoria Shilling
On May 17th 1863 there was a partial eclipse of the Sun visible over Britain and this interesting account from the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society shows how you could relate what was happening to a Victoria Shilling!
Suppose a Victoria Shilling to represent the Sun, the Moon will appear to touch it first on the right side, at the last R in the word BRITANNIAR and to leave it at the left side of the letter I in the word GRATIA.
A portion of the right hand side of the upper part of the Sun will therefore be concealed.
When the next partial eclipse occurs over Manchester it might be interesting to note if the Manchester Astronomical Society might repeat this advice but using a modern coin!
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