Hermit Eclipse is a non-commercial educational website which provides
information about eclipses of the Sun and Moon,
and about when you can see them, presented
in a (hopefully) straightforward way for easy consumption. At the same time,
I hate dumbing-down; so for those who want the detail, the
more advanced pages cover the whole
story about how eclipses work and why they happen when they do.
Since I'm not an astronomer, the information presented here is a
re-interpretation of work done by real scientists (see "Sources" below).
As such it shouldn't be taken as authoritative; the goal here is to
pull together a lot of interesting information about eclipses in one
place. If you need expert information, consult the original sources.
The Staff
The Hermit Eclipse site is owned and operated by one person, as a
spare-time project, with the aim of providing
information about solar and lunar eclipses in a way that's accessible
and easy to read. This is a non-profit site, provided for free, with
no advertising; I do this out of personal interest, and in what little
spare time I have.
Please bear in mind that I'm not a professional (or even amateur)
astronomer; however, I certainly do my best to present the facts accurately.
If I've messed it up in the process, I apologise; please
let me know,
and I'll do my best to fix it. If you like the site, feel free to
tell me that too!
Sources
This information is not original work by me; it is simply a summary
and interpretation of information available elsewhere.
The information here is drawn from the following sources:
- GSFC Eclipse Web Site (NASA Goddard Space flight Center)
- The primary source of all the information on eclipses presented here at Hermit Eclipse.
- Astronomical Algorithms, 2nd. ed. (Jean Meeus)
- An essential resource for anyone wanting to do their own astronomical calculations, Meeus presents sophisticated astronomical algorithms in an easy to use format. These algorithms were used to calculate much supplementary data on this site.
- UK Solar Eclipses from year 1 to 3000, by Sheridan Williams FRAS (Sheridan Williams FRAS)
- Detailed information and maps on all solar eclipses visible from the U.K. up to the year 3000.
