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Up to three eclipses may occur during an eclipse season, a one- or two-month period that happens twice a year, around the time when the Sun is near the nodes of the Moon's orbit. An eclipse does not occur every month, because one month after an eclipse the relative geometry of the Sun, Moon, and Earth has changed.
Year 4 of SC25 (Dec 2022 to Nov 2023) averaged 41% more spots per day than year 4 of SC24. Year 5 of SC25 (Dec 2023 to Nov 2024) averaged 71% more spots per day than year 5 of SC24. Year 6 of SC25 (1 Dec 2024 to 3 Jan 2025) is currently averaging 27% more spots per day than at the same point in year 6 of SC24.
Flares of any given size are some 50 times more frequent at solar maximum than at minimum. Large coronal mass ejections occur on average a few times a day at solar maximum, down to one every few days at solar minimum. The size of these events themselves does not depend sensitively on the phase of the solar cycle.
The solar cycle is a 28-year cycle of the Julian calendar, and 400-year cycle of the Gregorian calendar with respect to the week. It occurs because leap years occur every 4 years, typically observed by adding a day to the month of February, making it February 29th. There are 7 possible days to start a leap year, making a 28-year sequence. [1]
The mean calendar year of such a calendar approximates the sidereal year. Leaping from one lunation to another, but one Sidereal year is the period between two occurrences of the sun, as measured by the stars' solar calendar, which is derived from the Earth's orbit around the sun every 28 years. [3]
The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun throughout the course of a year. [5] Because Earth takes one year to orbit the Sun, the apparent position of the Sun takes one year to make a complete circuit of the ecliptic. With slightly more than 365 days in one year, the Sun moves a little less than 1° eastward [6] every day.
During the season, whenever there is a full moon a lunar eclipse may occur and whenever there is a new moon a solar eclipse may occur. If the Sun is close enough to a node, then a "full" eclipse [total or annular solar, or total lunar] will occur. Each season lasts from 31 to 37 days, and seasons recur about every 6 months (173 days).
For locations not too close to the equator or the poles, the dates with the longest and shortest periods of daylight are the summer and winter solstices, respectively. Terms with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context are "June solstice" and "December solstice", referring to the months in which they take place every year. [7]