In 1901, an extraordinary ancient Greek artefact was discovered in a shipwreck just off the
tiny island of Antikythera. It was later shown to be a complex astronomical calculating
machine and is now known as the Antikythera Mechanism. In 2005, it was established that it
predicted eclipses, using a 7th century BC Babylonian eclipse cycle of 223 lunar months,
known as the Saros Cycle. Understanding the complex eclipse prediction scheme on the
Antikythera Mechanism has resulted from a fascinating series of discoveries. The eclipse …