Five Millennium Catalog of Solar Eclipses

-1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE)

Introduction

Eclipses of the Sun can only occur when the Moon is near one of its two orbital nodes [1] during the New Moon phase (see Periodicity of Solar Eclipses ). It is then possible for the Moon's penumbral, umbral or antumbral shadows to sweep across Earth's surface thereby producing an eclipse. There are four types of solar eclipses:

  1. Partial - Moon's penumbral shadow traverses Earth (umbral and antumbral shadows completely miss Earth)
  2. Annular - Moon's antumbral shadow traverses Earth (Moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the Sun)
  3. Total - Moon's umbral shadow traverses Earth (Moon is close enough to Earth to completely cover the Sun)
  4. Hybrid - Moon's umbral and antumbral shadows traverse Earth (eclipse appears annular and total along different sections of its path). Hybrid eclipses are also known as annular-total eclipses. [2]

Total eclipses are visible from within the Moon’s umbral shadow while annular eclipses are seen within the antumbral shadow . These eclipses can be classified as central [3] or non-central as:

  1. Central (two limits) - The central axis of the Moon’s shadow cone traverses Earth thereby producing a central line in the eclipse track. The umbra or antumbra falls entirely upon Earth so the ground track has both a northern and southern limit.
  2. Central (one limit) - The central axis of the Moon’s shadow cone traverses Earth. However, a portion of the umbra or antumbra misses Earth throughout the eclipse and the resulting ground track has just one limit.
  3. Non-Central (one limit) - The central axis of the Moon’s shadow cone misses Earth. However, one edge of the umbra or antumbra grazes Earth thereby producing a ground track with one limit and no central line.

Solar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE)

During the five Millennium period -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE[4]), Earth will experience 11898 solar eclipses. The following table shows the number of eclipses of each type over this period.

Solar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000
Eclipse Type Symbol Number Percent
All Eclipses - 11898100.0%
PartialP 4200 35.3%
AnnularA 3956 33.2%
TotalT 3173 26.7%
HybridH 569 4.8%

Annular and total eclipses can be further classified as either: 1) Central (two limits), 2) Central (one limit) or 3) Non-Central (one limit). The statistical distribution of these classes over five millennia appears in the following three tables (no Hybrids are included since all are central with two limits).

Annular and Total Eclipses (Combined)
Classification Number Percent
All 7129100.0%
Central (two limits) 6948 97.5%
Central (one limit) 87 1.2%
Non-Central (one limit) 94 1.3%
Annular Eclipses
Classification Number Percent
All Annular Eclipses 3956100.0%
Central (two limits) 3827 96.7%
Central (one limit) 61 1.5%
Non-Central (one limit) 68 1.7%
Total Eclipses
Classification Number Percent
All Total Eclipses 3173100.0%
Central (two limits) 3121 98.4%
Central (one limit) 26 0.8%
Non-Central (one limit) 26 0.8%

There are a minimum of two and a maximum of five solar eclipses in every calendar year. Statistics for the number of eclipses each year over the 5000 year period are listed below.

Number of Eclipses Per Year
Number of Eclipses Number of Years Percent
2 3625 72.5%
3 877 17.5%
4 473 9.5%
5 25 0.5%

The years containing five eclipses are:

Years With Five Solar Eclipses
-1852 -1805 -1787 -1740 -1675
-1154 -1089 -568 -503 -438
-373 18 83 148 604
669 734 1255 1805 1935
2206 2709 2774 2839 2904

There are 43 years containing two eclipses in the same calendar month:

Two Solar Eclipses in Same Calendar Month
-1957 Mar -1805 Jan -1610 Jul -1534 Jun -1523 May -1447 Apr -1209 Dec -1122 Oct
-1111 Sep -1035 Aug -1024 Jul -1013 Jun -688 Dec -677 Nov -601 Oct -590 Sep
-514 Aug -503 Jul -416 May 7 Aug 18 Jul 97 Apr 463 Aug 528 Aug
539 Jul 542 May 618 Apr 629 Mar 1063 May 1150 Mar 1215 Mar 1631 May
1696 May 1805 Jan 1880 Dec 2000 Jul 2206 Dec 2261 Jan 2282 Nov 2304 Sep
2380 Aug 2684 Oct 2785 May

The longest and shortest eclipses of the 5,000 year period as well the largest and smallest partial eclipses are listed below.

          Longest Annular Solar Eclipse:    0150 Dec 07      Duration = 12m23s
         Shortest Annular Solar Eclipse:    2931 Dec 30      Duration = 00m00s

          Longest  Total  Solar Eclipse:    2186 Jul 16      Duration = 07m29s
         Shortest  Total  Solar Eclipse:    0919 Feb 03      Duration = 00m09s

           Longest Hybrid Solar Eclipse:   -0979 Aug 13      Duration = 01m48s
          Shortest Hybrid Solar Eclipse:    1986 Oct 03      Duration = 00m00s

          Largest Partial Solar Eclipse:   -1577 Mar 30     Magnitude = 0.99984
         Smallest Partial Solar Eclipse:   -1838 Apr 04     Magnitude = 0.00002

The table below summarizes all eclipses over this five millennium period by century. Each line in the table gives a breakdown per century for each type of eclipse (partial, annular, total and hybrid). The date intervals themselves are each links to a catalog page listing full details for every solar eclipse in the corresponding century. The data in these 100 year eclipse tables include the date and time of greatest eclipse[5], the eclipse type, Saros series, gamma, magnitude and local circumstances. For a detailed key and additional information about the catalogs, see: Key to Catalog of Solar Eclipses. Each of the 100 year tables is about 40 kilobytes in size. The data presented here are based on the Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000.




Five Millennium Catalog of Solar Eclipses

Century Interval Number of Eclipses Number of Partial Eclipses Number of Annular Eclipses[6] Number of Total Eclipses[6] Number of Hybrid Eclipses
-1999 to -1900 239 84 70 [1] 62 [0] 22
-1899 to -1800 253 93 80 [0] 62 [1] 17
-1799 to -1700 254 95 73 [1] 63 [1] 21
-1699 to -1600 230 75 70 [1] 60 [0] 24
-1599 to -1500 225 78 65 [2] 59 [0] 21
-1499 to -1400 226 77 65 [4] 61 [1] 18
-1399 to -1300 234 76 83 [1] 68 [0] 6
-1299 to -1200 250 93 86 [0] 64 [0] 7
-1199 to -1100 252 93 89 [0] 63 [0] 7
-1099 to -1000 238 79 89 [2] 67 [1] 0
-0999 to -0900 226 84 74 [1] 58 [3] 6
-0899 to -0800 225 80 73 [2] 64 [2] 4
-0799 to -0700 234 79 88 [0] 64 [0] 3
-0699 to -0600 253 96 86 [1] 63 [0] 7
-0599 to -0500 255 96 85 [1] 65 [0] 8
-0499 to -0400 241 84 76 [2] 62 [0] 17
-0399 to -0300 225 83 62 [1] 56 [0] 23
-0299 to -0200 226 83 61 [1] 55 [2] 24
-0199 to -0100 237 80 71 [2] 62 [1] 21
-0099 to 0000 251 92 77 [0] 64 [1] 17
0001 to 0100 248 90 74 [1] 58 [0] 25
0101 to 0200 237 80 75 [2] 63 [1] 16
0201 to 0300 227 79 70 [4] 69 [0] 5
0301 to 0400 222 73 74 [2] 65 [1] 7
0401 to 0500 233 80 83 [1] 67 [0] 2
0501 to 0600 251 93 86 [1] 65 [0] 6
0601 to 0700 251 90 89 [1] 67 [0] 4
0701 to 0800 233 77 86 [2] 66 [0] 2
0801 to 0900 222 78 72 [2] 62 [2] 6
0901 to 1000 227 76 83 [1] 65 [1] 1
1001 to 1100 241 84 90 [0] 61 [0] 6
1101 to 1200 250 92 82 [0] 61 [0] 15
1201 to 1300 246 87 80 [1] 60 [0] 18
1301 to 1400 229 76 72 [3] 54 [0] 24
1401 to 1500 222 77 62 [3] 60 [1] 19
1501 to 1600 228 75 69 [3] 62 [0] 19
1601 to 1700 248 89 74 [0] 60 [1] 24
1701 to 1800 251 92 78 [0] 62 [0] 19
1801 to 1900 242 87 77 [0] 63 [0] 15
1901 to 2000 228 78 71 [2] 68 [3] 6
2001 to 2100 224 77 70 [2] 67 [1] 7
2101 to 2200 235 79 82 [5] 65 [0] 4
2201 to 2300 248 92 86 [0] 67 [0] 3
2301 to 2400 248 88 86 [0] 66 [0] 8
2401 to 2500 237 81 87 [2] 65 [1] 1
2501 to 2600 225 83 71 [1] 63 [1] 6
2601 to 2700 227 77 78 [3] 64 [0] 5
2701 to 2800 242 84 92 [0] 63 [0] 3
2801 to 2900 254 95 86 [1] 63 [0] 9
2901 to 3000 248 91 80 [2] 64 [0] 11

Calendar

The Gregorian calendar is used for all dates from 1582 Oct 15 onwards. Before that date, the Julian calendar is used. For more information on this topic, see Calendar Dates. The Julian calendar does not include the year 0. Thus the year 1 BCE is followed by the year 1 CE (See: BCE/CE Dating Conventions ). This is awkward for arithmetic calculations. Years in this catalog are numbered astronomically and include the year 0. Historians should note there is a difference of one year between astronomical dates and BCE dates. Thus, the astronomical year 0 corresponds to 1 BCE, and astronomical year -1 corresponds to 2 BCE, etc..


Predictions

The coordinates of the Sun used in these predictions are based on the VSOP87 theory [Bretagnon and Francou, 1988]. The Moon's coordinates are based on the ELP-2000/82 theory [Chapront-Touze and Chapront, 1983]. For more information, see: Solar and Lunar Ephemerides. The revised value used for the Moon's secular acceleration is n-dot = -25.858 arc-sec/cy*cy, as deduced from the Apollo lunar laser ranging experiment (Chapront, Chapront-Touze, and Francou, 2002).

The largest uncertainty in the eclipse predictions is caused by fluctuations in Earth's rotation due primarily to tidal friction of the Moon. The resultant drift in apparent clock time is expressed as ΔT and is determined as follows:

  1. pre-1950's: ΔT calculated from empirical fits to historical records derived by Morrison and Stephenson (2004)
  2. 1955-present: ΔT obtained from published observations
  3. future: ΔT is extrapolated from current values weighted by the long term trend from tidal effects

A series of polynomial expressions have been derived to simplify the evaluation of ΔT for any time from -1999 to +3000. The uncertainty in ΔT over this period can be estimated from scatter in the measurements.


Footnotes

[1] The orbital nodes are the two points where the Moon's orbit crosses a plane of Earth's orbit (i.e., the ecliptic).

[2] Hybrid eclipses are also known as annular/total eclipses. Such an eclipse is both total and annular along different sections of its umbral path. (See: Five Millennium Catalog of Hybrid Solar Eclipses)

[3] Central solar eclipses are eclipses in which the central axis of the Moon's shadow strikes the Earth's surface. All partial (penumbral) eclipses are non-central eclipses since the shadow axis misses Earth. However, umbral eclipses (total, annular and hybrid) may be either central (usually) or non-central (rarely).

[4] The terms BCE and CE are abbreviations for "Before Common Era" and "Common Era," respectively. They are the secular equivalents to the BC and AD dating conventions. (See: Year Dating Conventions )

[5] Greatest eclipse is defined as the instant when the axis of the Moon's shadow passes closest to the Earth's center. For total eclipses, the instant of greatest eclipse is virtually identical to the instants of greatest magnitude and greatest duration. However, for annular eclipses, the instant of greatest duration may occur at either the time of greatest eclipse or near the sunrise and sunset points of the eclipse path.

[6] The first quantity is the number of central eclipses, while the second quantity [in square brackets] is the number of non-central eclipses.


Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Jean Meeus for providing the Besselian elements used in the solar eclipse predictions.

All eclipse calculations are by Fred Espenak, and he assumes full responsibility for their accuracy. Some of the information presented on this web site is based on data originally published in Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000.

Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment:

"Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus (NASA's GSFC)"

2009 Aug 21