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Thales of Miletus [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] |
 | | In other recent research Britton has analysed a text known as Text S, which provides considerable detail and fine analysis of lunar phenomena dating from Nabonassar in 747 BCE The text points to knowledge of the six-month five month periods. |
| | Britton believes that the Saros cycle was known before 525 BCE (Britton, "Scientific Astronomy", 62) but, although the text identifies a particular Saros cycle, and graphically depicts the number of eclipse possibilities, the ancient commentary of Text S does not attest to an actual observation (Britton, "An Early Function", 32). |
| | The Babylonian and Assyrian astronomers knew of the Saros period in relation to lunar eclipses, and had some success in predicting lunar eclipses but, in the sixth century BCE when Thales lived and worked, neither the Saros nor the Exeligmos cycles could be used to predict solar eclipses. |
| www.iep.utm.edu /t/thales.htm (9340 words) |
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