The earliest accounting of a solar eclipse may be in 585 BCE, when according to the Greek historian Herodotus, a solar eclipse stopped the war between the Lydians and the Medes, who saw the dark skies as a sign to make peace with each other. Although early eclipse pioneers, including Chinese astronomer Liu Hsiang, Greek philosopher Plutarch, and Byzantine historian Leo Diaconus tried to describe and explain solar eclipses and their features, it was not until 1605 that astrono