What is the maximum number of solar eclipses per year?

Question

What is the maximum number of solar eclipses per year?

Answer 1

The maximum number of solar eclipses per year is five, but this is quite a rare occurrence. The last year in which it happened was 1935 and the next will be 2206.

Eclipses take place in 'seasons' which occur slightly less than six months apart. It's possible for there to be a 'season' in January, followed by another one in June/July and another in December. It's also possible for there to be two solar eclipses in a 'season'. These would be a month apart and take the form of a partial eclipse visible near one of the poles, followed a month later by a similar eclipse seen from the other pole. There may be two consecutive seasons of partial eclipses, but never three. So there could be two partial eclipses at the beginning of the year, two in June or July and finally a total or annular eclipse in December, making five in total (as in 1935). Alternatively, the total or annular eclipse might occur in January, followed by four partial eclipses (as in 2206).

Answer 2

Hi Jesusa!

The maximum number is five. Each calendar year MUST contain a minimum of two solar eclipses. (It must also have a minimum of two eclipses of the moon.) There can be as many as five eclipses of the sun. The next year with five lunar eclipses will be 2132.  The next time with five solar eclipses will be 2206.

Here's how it works. Eclipses do not simply happen at random. They only take place at certain times of the year, during what are called "eclipse seasons." Each eclipse season is as much as 37 days long. When a new moon happens during those 37 days, there will be a solar eclipse. If there's a full moon, we'll have an eclipse of the moon.

Full moons and new moons take place about 14 to 15 days apart, so there must be at least one of each in every eclipse season. One lunar eclipse. One solar eclipse.

If a new moon happens shortly after the beginning of a 37-day eclipse season, there will be enough time for a second new moon before the season ends. That means you will have two solar eclipses in one eclipse season.

Eclipse seasons fall about 25 weeks apart. That means that there must be at least two in each year. There must be at least one solar eclipse in each. It can also happen that in BOTH of the eclipse seasons, new moons happen near the start and near the end, making as many as four solar eclipses.

Since eclipse seasons are 25 weeks apart, it is possible that one might start in early January, the second in late June/early July and a third in late December. If there happened to be two solar eclipses in the January season and two in the June season, and if the December new moon also comes before New Year, you could get five solar eclipses in a single year. This is what happened in 1935, the last time this occurred.  

The next time it will happen is 2206.  In 2206, the last eclipse of the December-January eclipse season comes in January, followed by two in the June-July season, and two on December 1 and December 30.  

Six solar eclipses, by the way, are impossible in a single calendar year. If the December eclipse season started with a new moon and a fifth solar eclipse of the year in late December, the next new moon could not take place until January, beyond the end of the year.

Eclipse seasons migrate through our calendar. In 2008, the eclipse seasons took place in February and, now, in August.  Next year, 2009, the first eclipse season runs in late January-February, the second in July-August, and then a third starts in the last week of December, 2009 and runs on into 2010.  Next year, incidentally, has four lunar eclipses, and narrowly misses being a lunar five-eclipse year because the full moon on January 11th happens just before the start of the first 2009 eclipse season.

Answer 3

The maximum number of solar eclipses (partial, annular or total) is five per year.