The Moon went as dark as a moonless night: Fujiwara no Teika on the eclipse of 2 December 1229

Meigetsuki, the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, as translated in Guillet et al. 2023: 'the sky was free of clouds into the distance and the Moon over the hills emerged in eclipse, total for a little while, its light meagre as on a dark night.' Four days later he added that although there had been total eclipses before, 'the old folk had never seen it like this time', and the court astronomers spoke of it fearfully. One of only six medieval eclipses rated darkest (Danjon 0).