Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.
Unregistered tartans may link to one of the web's online design environments for similar information.
For any questions about reproduction of designs or weaving of these tartans, please contact the registrant directly or via this website.
Ring of Fire Eclipse (2021)
"I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down and the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire, the ring of fire"
~ Ring of Fire, Anita Carter, 1962
People in parts of the Northern Hemisphere will get a chance to watch the celestial event of summer 2021, the 'ring of fire' annular Solar Eclipse of 2021! This eclipse will be visible in parts of Canada, Greenland, and northern Russia. Viewers in parts of the eastern United States and northern Alaska will see a partial solar eclipse along with much of Canada and parts of the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. When the Moon is farthest from Earth, the Moon appears smaller and does not block the entire light of the Sun, creating a ring of sunlight. 🌞 😎
On August 21, 2017, a total eclipse of the sun was visible from within a narrow corridor that traversed the United States. The path of the moon's umbral shadow began in the northern Pacific and crossed the USA from west to east through parts of the following states: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina. The moon's penumbral shadow produced a partial eclipse visible from a large region covering most of North America. This was known as the Great American Solar Eclipse.
Total solar eclipses are not uncommon, but easily accessible viewing locations are. More common annular eclipses or partial eclipses allow many more viewing locations. If you are an eclipse chaser, you can travel far and wide to all ends of the earth to witness eclipses in person or watch real-time from the comfort of home.
The solar eclipse tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, was inspired by another partial solar eclipse of Jan. 4th, 2011, seen across Europe.
In eclipse-related archaeology, the recent advancements in x-ray imaging and 3-D modeling have allowed new insights into the mysterious Antikythera, originally recovered in 1900 from the wreck of a Roman vessel off the Greek island of Antikythera.
Among the other treasures from the shipwreck was a corroded lump, which over time, fell apart revealing a damaged machine of unknown purpose, with some large gears and many smaller cogs, plus a few engraved words in Greek. Early studies suggested it was some type of astronomical time-keeping device.
Recent imaging and modeling techniques have revealed the complex and detailed gear interactions. Probably built around 150 B.C. and using nothing but an ingenious system of gears, the mechanism could be used to predict the month, day and hour of an eclipse, and even accounted for leap years. It could also predict the positions of the sun and moon against the zodiac, and has a gear train that turns a black and white stone to show the moon's phase on a given date.
Devices with this level of complexity were not seen again for almost 1,500 years, and the Antikythera mechanism's compactness actually bests the later designs.
Interested in seeing the next great eclipse slated for 2024 on this date? Click the partial eclipse for upcoming eclipses in the next decades.