What is the maximum number of solar eclipses in a year ?
Within a given year, a maximum of seven eclipses can occur, either four solar and three lunar or five solar and two lunar. Despite the fact that there are more solar than lunar eclipses each year, over time many more lunar eclipses are seen at any single location on earth than solar eclipses. This occurs because a lunar eclipse can be seen from the entire half of the earth facing the moon at that time, while a solar eclipse is visible only along a narrow path on the earth’s surface. If seven eclipses are packed into the year, then at least some of the solar eclipses will be partial, because they must occur close to the start and end of the “eclipse seasons”. You can get three eclipses into any given eclipse season (solar-lunar-solar), and there is room for two full eclipse seasons and a partial eclipse season in a calendar year, so a seventh eclipse can be squeezed in before the end of the year. The year 1935 had the classic rhythm for a “five solar + two lunar” eclipse year.
