Astro-Challenge: Adventures in Daytime Astronomy

By David Dickinson - September 08, 2020 01:34 PM UTC | Observing
It's one of the stranger observations in ancient literature. A curious account comes to us by the 1st century AD Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, concerning the exploits of Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who notes that: "The Sun's radiance makes the fix'd stars invisible in the daytime, although they are shining as much as in the night, which becomes manifest at a solar eclipse and also when the star is reflected in a very deep well."
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