Fifty Year Canon of Lunar Eclipses: 1986 - 2035 has been designed to compliment Fifty Year Canon of Solar Eclipses: 1986 -
2035 (NASA RP 1178). Like its companion volume, its primary goal is to provide a five decade reference of moderately detailed
eclipse predictions and maps for use by the astronomical community. During the past century, Canon of Eclipses [Oppolzer,
1887] has served as an invaluable guide to both solar and lunar eclipses. However, with the advent of high speed electronic
computers and modern ephemerides, eclipse predictions of far greater accuracy are possible today. Although such predictions
are published annually in the Astronomical Almanac by the Nautical Almanac Office, this publication only becomes available
six to nine months before the beginning of each year. Canon of Lunar Eclipses: -2002 to +2526 [Meeus and Mucke, 1979] covers
eclipses over an unprecedented 45 century interval. But due to the sheer number of eclipses covered in this work, the details
for any one event must be rather brief. For instance, very little information is given concerning the visibility of an
eclipse except for the geographic coordinates where the Moon appears at the zenith at greatest eclipse. While mathematical
formulae are provided for calculating the Moon's altitude from any point on Earth, a map showing regions of visibility during
each phase would convey a great deal of information at one glance. |