Mask of the Sun: The Science, History and Forgotten Lore of Eclipses

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Corey M. Snow
1 review
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9 hr 10 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

Eclipses have stunned, frightened, emboldened, and mesmerized people for thousands of years. They were recorded on ancient turtle shells discovered in the Wastes of Yin in China, on clay tablets from Mesopotamia and on the Mayan "Dresden Codex." They are mentioned in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and at least eight times in the Bible. Columbus used them to trick people, while Renaissance painter Taddeo Gaddi was blinded by one. Sorcery was banished within the Catholic Church after astrologers used an eclipse to predict a pope's death.



In Mask of the Sun, acclaimed writer John Dvorak explains the importance of the number 177 and why the ancient Romans thought it was bad to have sexual intercourse during an eclipse (whereas other cultures thought it would be good luck). Even today, pregnant women in Mexico wear safety pins on their underwear during an eclipse. Eclipses are an amazing phenomena—unique to Earth—that have provided the key to much of what we now know and understand about the sun, our moon, gravity, and the workings of the universe.



Both entertaining and authoritative, Mask of the Sun reveals the humanism behind the science of both lunar and solar eclipses. With insightful detail and vividly accessible prose, Dvorak provides explanations as to how and why eclipses occur.
Eclipses have stunned, frightened, emboldened, and mesmerized people for thousands of years. They were recorded on ancient turtle shells discovered in the Wastes of Yin in China, on clay tablets from Mesopotamia and on the Mayan "Dresden Codex." They are mentioned in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and...

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Ratings and reviews

1 review
Jennifer Graziano
May 22, 2025
Concentration camps are for the solar system including clouds; they have waxing & waning light phases also, blackberry fruit trees are all black lighting. Snowing to set in national parks; then eat concentrated fruit tree juice extract from the forest orchard, and rain to rise. produce light A cloud covers the bottom of a light for normal shadow; the open top has domain perimeter activity. A half year cover hibernates the other half; blossoms with a thunder movement waking up. Thundering sounds & shakes is simply the snap; crackle, pop that begins spring crater blossom for each one. Craters set because they're have phase; full light fruit blossom orbit a star until beginning to phase.
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About the author

Originally trained as a lunar scientist, John Dvorak spent twenty years operating a large telescope at Mauna Kea for the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii. He has written cover stories for Scientific American, Astronomy, and Physics Today. His books include Earthquake Storms and The Last Volcano.

Corey M. Snow is a full-time audiobook narrator and voice talent from the great Pacific Northwest, working from his home studio in Olympia, Washington. In his life before becoming a narrator he has been a typesetter, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, a software developer, and much more.

Originally trained as a lunar scientist, John Dvorak spent twenty years operating a large telescope at Mauna Kea for the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii. He has written cover stories for Scientific American, Astronomy, and Physics Today. His books include Earthquake Storms and The L...

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Narrated by Corey M. Snow