Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Yaakov Zinberg

Yaakov Zinberg is a science writer and holds a bachelor's degree in molecular biology from Princeton University.

Stories from Yaakov Zinberg

Furnished with permission from the British to cross into their waters, Samuel Williams set sail for Penobscot Bay in south-central Maine, which he thought was within a solar eclipse's path of totality.

The Eclipse Chaser Who Led an Expedition Behind Enemy Lines During the Revolutionary War

In 1780, astronomer Samuel Williams journeyed to British-controlled territory to view a total solar eclipse