Let’s set the cutoff as pre-Copernican. Before we had a heliocentric model of the solar system, nevertheless ancient astronomers & mathematicians from various civilizations around the globe were all able to independently figure out the time and place of solar eclipses with enough accuracy to form predictions.
I’m wondering for those ancient astronomers, were tales of eclipses something that only existed in written records that they would experience for the first time like dragon tales and the experience of watching an eclipse actually happen is like watching a sci-fi movie come to life or was it possible for astronomers to have experienced multiple eclipses such that they had an idea of what to expect and were making fine grained observations of the next one.
I’m obviously not asking for an exact answer but like, could someone living in ancient China or ancient Rome or medieval Europe have ever seen a dozen total solar eclipses? Half a dozen? Or would even seeing two be a rarity? I’m assuming the average person would have, of course, seen zero as they lacked the means to travel but I’m asking for the top echelon of people who are interested in such things. Do we know who any of these people are? Did they leave writings behind that were like "Eclipse #9, similar to #7 in the following ways and different from #3 in these curious ways?
According to this article, the modern day world record is 30 which I suppose sets an upper limit.
Being able to travel wouldn’t help, since there was no way at the time to predict the path of totality.
So, I’d say the average was zero, or pretty damn close to it.
Eclipses reportedly happen about twice a year, so someone living for ~50 years would live through 100 of them. But 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water, so realistically only 30 of them could potentially be accessible to a land lubber. Assume that for travel purposes, you’re limited to your own continent, e.g. Europe or Asia, so divide those 30 land-based eclipses across seven continents, and that means really there’d only be about four total eclipses you could realistically expect to travel to, if you were a person of means.
…and also if you knew when and where they were going to happen.
In summary, it is clear ancient people could predict timings for lunar eclipses and partial solar eclipses, but there is no convincing evidence of people predicting the times and locations of total solar eclipses.
Entering the modern era of science, the first true prediction of a total solar eclipse (both in time and location) occurred in 1715. Edmond Halley (of comet fame) correctly predicted, to within four minutes and 20 miles, a total solar eclipse that rather conveniently passed over his own house in London. He did this by making full use of Isaac Newton’s new theories of gravity and orbital mechanics: the Principia.
So it wasn’t until ~300 years ago that we had the ability to predict when and where a total solar eclipse would happen. Which would mean that pre-Copernican folks really would have been extremely lucky to see just one total solar eclipse in their lifetime.
It’s not like there was no astronomy, but the thing is, the Moon’s motion is notoriously variable and complicated. So you knew when your eclipse was going to occur, but to be sure of the precise circumstances—even Halley’s 1715 eclipse map was off by about 20 miles.
You could certainly have someone witness two. The paths of totality for 2024 and 2017, for instance, crossed, and so anyone who happened to live in that overlap patch would have seen both of them. Though most likely none of those lucky folks would be scholars.
(And I totally misread the title-- I was thinking that an “ancient person” meant, like, a centenarian, and was thinking “Well, they could get up to two a year, if they had the means to travel, so maybe 200?”.)
That’s because time travellers usually choose to go to a time that has an eclipse coming up, just in case they need to instil awe. It’s basic best time travel practices.