Not only this, astronomers can even say where on Earth an eclipse will be visible, and how much of it will be seen.<\/p> The ancient Babylonians knew enough about the Moon\u2019s path and the saros cycle (the 18-year and 11-day cycle of eclipse recurrence) to be able to predict lunar eclipses<\/a> well in advance.<\/p> But solar eclipses<\/a> are visible from a far smaller area than lunar eclipses, and the track of any totality produced is very narrow.<\/p> Ancient civilisations did not have a precise enough knowledge of the Moon\u2019s path to accurately predict solar eclipses, nor did they have the mathematical tools with which to predict them.<\/p> It is only in the last 300 years that astronomers have been able to predict when a solar eclipse will occur accurately.<\/p> In the early 18th century, Edmond Halley was responsible for a big leap forward when he greatly improved upon the mathematical tables for the motion of the Sun and the Moon.<\/p> These models had essentially stayed the same since the work of the 10th century Arab astronomer Abu Batani (Latinised as Albategnius).<\/p> Work that was itself based upon the tables of Ptolemy<\/a> from the second century.<\/p> Nowadays things are so much easier and accessible to ordinary people, and astronomers are able to predict when an eclipse will occur at the push of a button.<\/p> Anyone using a planetarium program on their computer can call up data and graphics for eclipses from any location on Earth.<\/p> The clockwork nature of the Solar System and Earth’s location with respect to the Sun and Moon can be predicted well in advance.<\/p> Free software such as Stellarium<\/a> can be used by anyone to track future eclipses, lunar occultations<\/a>, conjunctions<\/a> or where a certain planet will appear at a certain time.<\/p> This article originally appeared in the July 2006 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Finding out when the next solar eclipse or lunar eclipse will occur isn’t simply guesswork! The mechanical nature of the Solar System enables incredible accuracy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":56640,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/this-is-how-astronomers-are-able-to-predict-when-the-next-eclipse-will-happen-and-where-it-will-be-visible-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/this-is-how-astronomers-are-able-to-predict-when-the-next-eclipse-will-happen-and-where-it-will-be-visible-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/this-is-how-astronomers-are-able-to-predict-when-the-next-eclipse-will-happen-and-where-it-will-be-visible-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/this-is-how-astronomers-are-able-to-predict-when-the-next-eclipse-will-happen-and-where-it-will-be-visible-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/this-is-how-astronomers-are-able-to-predict-when-the-next-eclipse-will-happen-and-where-it-will-be-visible-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/this-is-how-astronomers-are-able-to-predict-when-the-next-eclipse-will-happen-and-where-it-will-be-visible-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/this-is-how-astronomers-are-able-to-predict-when-the-next-eclipse-will-happen-and-where-it-will-be-visible-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Finding out when the next solar eclipse or lunar eclipse will occur isn't simply guesswork! The mechanical nature of the Solar System enables incredible accuracy.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/56639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ancient eclipse predictions<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"A](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/01\/Ptolemy-d604fba-scaled.jpg\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/10\/stellarium-predict-eclipse-1024x589.jpg?fit=800%2C460\")
Predicting eclipses in the modern age<\/strong><\/h2>
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