Aryabhatta about eclipse

This is what aryabhatta said and wrote about eclipse.

Aryabhata आर्यभट/ आर्यभट्ट mentions the reasons for eclipse ,

चन्द्रो जलमर्कोऽग्निर्मृद्भूश्छायापि या तमस्तद्धि |

छादयति शशी सूर्यं शशिनं महती च भूच्छाया || 

[आर्यभाटीय, गोलपादः 37]

chandro jalam_arko'gnir_mRid_bhUsh_chhAyApi yA tamas_taddhi |

chhAdayati shashI sUryam shashinam mahatI cha bhUch_chAyA ||

"moon is of water, sun is of fire, earth is of soil, and its shadow is of darkness.

the moon covers the sun, and the great shadow of the earth covers the moon." 

[The book of Aryabhata, Sphere section, #37]

He then discusses in detail, how to calculate the size of Earth's shadow and the size of the eclipsed part. These computations were improved by later astronomers a bit. His calculations were so accurate that 18th century scientist Guillaume Le Gentil, during a visit to Pondicherry, India, found the Indian computations of the duration of the lunar eclipse of 30 August 1765 to be short by 41 seconds, whereas his charts were long by 68 seconds.

Considered in modern English units of time, Aryabhata calculated the sidereal rotation (the rotation of the earth referencing the fixed stars) as 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds; the modern value is 23:56:4.091. Similarly, his value for the length of the sidereal year at 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds (365.25858 days) is an error of 3 minutes and 20 seconds over the length of a year (365.25636 days).

He even gave the times for Jupiter's revolution, distance of Sun and earth, earth circumference. He also pioneered in trigonometry and trigonometric calculations. Tables of sine and cosine of angles were calculated that are even today precise to 3-4 places of decimal point.

Some of his statements on astronomy, in AryabhAtIya golapAda chapter, worth noting are:

1. Sun illuminates half of the earth, moon and planets, the other half remains dark. 

2. Heavenly bodies seem to move westward at equator, similar to parallax by which the forest seems to move from a moving boat. 

3. Sri Lanka 90 degrees from pole, Ujjain 22.5 degree north of Lanka.

4. Cause of eclipses due to shadow of moon and earth and many calculations around it. 

5. Color of moon at different parts of total eclipse! 

6. At poles, Sun visible for 6 months, on moon, sun visible for half a lunar month!