Saros (astronomy)

The saros (/ˈsɛərɒs/ ⓘ) is a period of exactly 223 synodic months, 18 years 11 days and 8 hours, that can be used to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon. One saros period after an eclipse, the Sun, Earth, and Moon return to approximately the same relative geometry, a near straight line, and a nearly identical eclipse will occur, in what is referred to as an eclipse cycle. Every eclipse has an associated saros series and all succeeding or preceding eclipses have a different saros series associated with them - as the eclipse of the same series occurs or occurred with a gap of one saros only. Solar and lunar eclipses have different saros series.

A series of eclipses that are separated by one saros is called a saros series. It corresponds to:

The 19 eclipse years means that if there is a solar eclipse (or lunar eclipse), then after one saros a new moon will take place at the same node of the orbit of the Moon, and under these circumstances another solar eclipse can occur.

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