Silver sun over Bogota from 11 December 1808

Caldas's own note in the Semanario del Nuevo Reyno de Granada, early 1809, read in the original: 'Since the eleventh of December last, the disc of the Sun has been seen stripped of its radiance and of that strength of light which stops us looking at it calmly and without pain. Its natural fiery colour has changed to silver, so much that many mistook it for the Moon. This is most noticeable at sunrise and especially at sunset.' He adds that a very light, evenly spread, transparent cloud covered the whole sky, the blue of the sky dropped to the lowest grades of his cyanometer, and frosts burned the crops. He compares it with a darkened Sun recorded in Cologne, Lima and all of Europe in the reign of Philip IV.