Saros cycle and eclipse prediction
Ciclo de saros y predicción de eclipses
- Date
- c. 750 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Babylon, Mesopotamia, Iraq
- Credited to
- Chaldean astronomers
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Systematic records of eclipses (Astronomical Diaries) allowed the discovery of the 18-year-and-11-day cycle after which eclipses repeat. It was the first successful prediction of a celestial phenomenon.
The tradition that Thales predicted the eclipse of 585 BCE probably depends on Babylonian knowledge.
What it led to
- Predictive mathematical astronomy
- Lunar theory of Hipparchus and Ptolemy
- Concept of periodic natural law