Saros cycle
E81629
The Saros cycle is an approximately 18-year period after which nearly identical solar and lunar eclipses repeat, due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Saros cycle canonical | 5 |
| Inex and Saros form a two-dimensional grid of eclipses | 1 |
| Saros series | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T652397 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Saros cycle Context triple: [Metonic cycle, relatedTo, Saros cycle]
-
A.
Metonic cycle
The Metonic cycle is a 19-year astronomical period after which the phases of the Moon recur on the same days of the solar year, forming the basis for many lunisolar calendars.
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B.
Eclipse
Eclipse is a widely used open-source integrated development environment (IDE) primarily for Java and other programming languages, known for its extensible plugin-based architecture.
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C.
Shuah
Shuah is a lesser-known son of the biblical patriarch Abraham, mentioned among the children he had with Keturah.
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D.
Kepler Track
The Kepler Track is a renowned multi-day Great Walk in New Zealand, offering alpine and lakeside scenery in the Fiordland region of the South Island.
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E.
Rudolphine Tables
The Rudolphine Tables are a landmark 17th-century star catalog and set of astronomical tables compiled by Johannes Kepler, renowned for their unprecedented accuracy in predicting planetary positions.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Saros cycle Target entity description: The Saros cycle is an approximately 18-year period after which nearly identical solar and lunar eclipses repeat, due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
-
A.
Metonic cycle
The Metonic cycle is a 19-year astronomical period after which the phases of the Moon recur on the same days of the solar year, forming the basis for many lunisolar calendars.
-
B.
Eclipse
Eclipse is a widely used open-source integrated development environment (IDE) primarily for Java and other programming languages, known for its extensible plugin-based architecture.
-
C.
Shuah
Shuah is a lesser-known son of the biblical patriarch Abraham, mentioned among the children he had with Keturah.
-
D.
Kepler Track
The Kepler Track is a renowned multi-day Great Walk in New Zealand, offering alpine and lakeside scenery in the Fiordland region of the South Island.
-
E.
Rudolphine Tables
The Rudolphine Tables are a landmark 17th-century star catalog and set of astronomical tables compiled by Johannes Kepler, renowned for their unprecedented accuracy in predicting planetary positions.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
astronomical cycle
ⓘ
eclipse cycle ⓘ periodic phenomenon ⓘ sequence of eclipses ⓘ |
| appliesTo | both solar and lunar eclipse prediction ⓘ |
| basedOnAlignmentOf |
Earth
ⓘ
Moon ⓘ Sun ⓘ |
| causes | eclipse visibility region to move westward each cycle ⓘ |
| causesRepetitionOf |
eclipse characteristics
ⓘ
eclipse geometry ⓘ |
| dependsOn |
anomalistic month
ⓘ
draconic month ⓘ synodic month ⓘ |
| equals |
223 synodic months
ⓘ
239 anomalistic months ⓘ 242 draconic months ⓘ |
| field |
astronomy
ⓘ
celestial mechanics ⓘ |
| hasApproximateDuration |
18 years 11 days 8 hours
ⓘ
6585.3211 days ⓘ |
| hasConsequence |
eclipses in a series evolve from partial to total or annular and back
ⓘ
eclipses in a series gradually shift in latitude ⓘ |
| hasOrigin | ancient Mesopotamian astronomy ⓘ |
| hasProperty |
eclipses occur at similar distance of Moon from Earth
ⓘ
eclipses occur at similar node ⓘ eclipses occur at similar time of year ⓘ |
| hasSubConcept |
Saros cycle
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Saros series
|
| hasTypicalLength | about 12 to 13 centuries ⓘ |
| hasUncertainty | about 8 hours shift per cycle ⓘ |
| implies |
similar eclipse duration
ⓘ
similar eclipse magnitude ⓘ similar eclipse path on Earth ⓘ |
| isDiscussedIn |
astronomy textbooks
ⓘ
eclipse catalogs ⓘ |
| nameUsedIn | modern eclipse prediction ⓘ |
| precedes | Inex cycle ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Metonic cycle
ⓘ
Tritos cycle ⓘ |
| relatesTo |
lunar eclipses
ⓘ
solar eclipses ⓘ |
| repetitionOf |
similar lunar eclipses
ⓘ
similar solar eclipses ⓘ |
| usedFor | predicting eclipses ⓘ |
| wasAdoptedBy | Greek astronomers ⓘ |
| wasKnownTo |
Babylonians
ⓘ
surface form:
Babylonian astronomers
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Saros cycle Description of subject: The Saros cycle is an approximately 18-year period after which nearly identical solar and lunar eclipses repeat, due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Saros series
this entity surface form:
Inex and Saros form a two-dimensional grid of eclipses