Sculpture of the Laocoön and solar eclipses

 The Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy),  one of the largest and best-known museums in the world, holds a collection of priceless works from the period of the Italian Renaissance. One of these is the Laocoön sculpture by Baccio Bandinelli (Florence 1493-1560). 

The sculpture depicts the Trojan priest and his sons crushed by sea serpent sent by Poseidon to stop him from revealing the deception of the Trojan horse devised by Odysseus to help the Greek army enter the city of Troy. One can find more about the history of this sculpture at the Uffizi web site. 

The stature rests on its original pedestal. Two sides of this pedestal show identical reliefs, which caught the eye of this astronomer. What the reliefs show is the geometry of total solar eclipse. Two half-spheres represent Sun (surrounded by spiky corona) and the Moon. Two lines connecting the edges of the Sun and Moon mark the outer boundary of umbra, the darkest part of shadow cast by Moon blocking the sunlight. Two other lines show angles at which the lunar disk would be seen from each side of umbra.

By the way, next solar total eclipse will take place on 12 August 2026. It starts in Greenland, passes over North Atlantic Ocean, parts of Iceland, Spain, and it ends in the Mediterranean Sea. In Florence, it will be a partial solar eclipse with maximum obscuration of 92.07%. Several teams of scientist from the US National Solar Observatory will travel to Spain to observe this total eclipse. We will post updates from these eclipse expeditions later.