

The eclipse begins, and the astronomers try to record every part of the event. Then they're interrupted again by a member of the Cult trying to sabotage their equipment.

They're interrupted by the late arrival of two more astronomers, who explain their recent experiment with recreating what they know of the night sky. They discuss the Theory of Universal Gravitation, Darkness, and Stars. Theremon learns from Sheerin 501 about the cycle of civilization and destruction, where cities are burned every two thousand and fifty years. In four more hours, Beta will be eclipsed by a moon that the astronomers discovered only a few months ago. The story starts with the setting of the fifth sun, Gamma. Theremon and Aton live on Lagash, a planet in orbit around six suns. He's there to convince the head of the observatory, Aton 77, to let him write an article about the eclipse from the point of view of the scientists, which provides a character for them to give exposition to.

Theremon 762 is a newspaper reporter who, for two months before the events of this story, has been discrediting the local astronomers and their reports of an upcoming eclipse that will end their planet's Endless Daytime. This story was nominated for the 1941 Retro Hugo Award for short stories in 2016, along with " Robbie" and " Homo Sol". Campbell, dissenting from the above quotation and inspiring the following story.Ī Science Fiction Novelette first published in Astounding Science Fiction (September 1941 issue) by Isaac Asimov.
