VIKINGS employed unusual tactics to ward off the partial eclipse of the sun.
Two re-enactment Vikings joined Martin Lunn, curator of Astronomy for York Museums Trust, to see if there was any truth in Viking mythology about eclipses.
"Vikings believed the eclipse was a giant wolf trying to eat the sun and would make lots of noises to scare the wolf away," said Mr Lunn.
They viewed yesterday's eclipse by projecting an image of the sun on to the wall in the observatory.
Mr Lunn said: "Total eclipses of the sun in Britain are rare; the last was in 1999 and the next will be in 2090, so we will have to make do with partial eclipses.
"This eclipse will be best observed from places like Spain and North Africa.
"It is known as an annular eclipse because although the moon is directly in front of the sun it is a little bit further away from the earth, and its disc is not quite large enough to cover the sun."
Updated: 10:54 Tuesday, October 04, 2005
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