Notes: Eclipses

Collection of my notes on Eclipses

Interesting things about Eclipse

Eclipse season: Just as there is rabbit and duck season I have learned there is eclipse season! It occurs roughly every 6 months when the orbital plane of the moon aligns just right to cause a solar eclipse during a new moon, and a lunar eclipse on the full moon.
- for example, after the total eclipse of that we had in Spain in 2026 there was then a lunar eclipse:
- Which is a funny story and actually led to this post: I went to the roof to do my morning exercises on Friday August 28th I saw the moon was missing a piece. I thought it must be because I did not have my glasses and went down and grabbed them and my phone and captured a picture and then later that night a neighbor explained there had been a lunar eclipse:
The August 12 2026 Eclipse was the first total eclipse visible from mainland Spain since 1905
- My post about that eclipse
Any single point on Earth experiences a total solar eclipse roughly once every 375 years on average (this varies a lot — some spots go 1,000+ years without one, others get “lucky” clusters).
Saros: a length of time covering 223 lunar cycles and can be used to to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
- 6,585.32 days — 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours.
- appears Babylonian scribes were using this in roughly the 7th–6th century BCE
- The name was given by Edmond Halley in 1691 when he reintroduced the cycle and got the name from a Suda, a Byzantine lexicon of the 11th century.