Dresden Codex eclipse table
Tabla de eclipses del Códice de Dresde
- Date
- c. 1200-1250 · confidence medium
- Place
- Chichén Itzá / Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico
- Credited to
- Maya priest-astronomers
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A series of 405 lunations (about 33 years) marking the seasons in which a solar or lunar eclipse can occur. It shows that the Maya had empirical knowledge of the lunar nodes.
Bricker and Bricker (1983, 2011). The interpretation of some intervals remains open.
What it led to
- eclipse prediction
- highly precise calculation of the synodic month