In fact lunar eclipses in a Saros series recur every 18 years plus 10 or 11 days. The magnitudes of the eclipses increase from the start of the series to a peak before falling away at the end of the series. Typically a Saros series lasts for about 75 eclipses, about 25 of these being penumbral. For a more detailed discussion of Saros cycles see LiuBao-Lin and FialaA. D., Canon of lunar eclipses 1500 b.C. –a.d. 3000 (Richmond, Virginia, 1992), 8.
2.
BeaulieuP. A. and BrittonJ. P., “Rituals for an eclipse possibility in the 8th year of Cyrus”, Journal of cuneiform studies, xlvi (1994), 73–86.
3.
StephensonF. R. and MorrisonL. V., “Long-term fluctuations in the Earth's rotation: 700 B.C. to a.d. 1990”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London, A, cccli (1995), 165–202.
4.
SachsA. J., “Babylonian observational astronomy”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London, A, cclxxvi (1974), 43–50.
5.
SachsA. J., “A classification of the Babylonian astronomical tablets of the Seleucid period”, Journal of cuneiform studies, ii (1948), 271–90.
6.
SachsA. J. and HungerH., Astronomical diaries and related texts from Babylonia (3 vols, Vienna, 1988, 1989, 1996).
