30. First sighting

The oldest preserved text with the characteristic 8-7-8-7-8 scheme of the Saros may come from the 6th century. The tablet (LBAT *1420) registers eclipse possibilities from -603 to a final entry in -575, and it likely was inscribed soon thereafter.

If 747 BC marks the beginning of regular eclipse recordings, then apparently within two centuries of astronomical observations the Babylonians had identified and systematized the Saros.