24. A Saros Mystery

A Saros period is 18 years plus about 10 days. Hence the year of an eclipse in a Saros cycle can generally be obtained by adding 18 to the year of the preceding eclipse. On the rare occasion that an eclipse occurs within 10 days of the end of a year, 19 must be added to arrive at the year of the next eclipse.

Now to the denouement: The last entry of the Saros Tablet is a year that draws to a close with an eclipse. Historians propose that this eclipse marks the finale of an 18-year sequence, and the next entry would require a 19-year jump. In effect, after mulling over the problem for a century, historians settled on a particular Saros cycle and declaredThe Mystery of the Saros Tablet solved.