These are some open issues for which I would appreciate your research or content:


I am generally interested in receiving any significant eclipse maps from any era. Please send email to eclipsemaps@gmail.com if you would like to contribute an image of a map for this web site. Include a description, source, other relevant particulars, and the highest-possible resolution image. If performing a scan of a map in your collection, please set 600 dpi and 24-bit color setting. All contributions are acknowledged.


I acknowledge that the selection of historical eclipse maps on this web-site are predominantly from Europe or North America. I would especially welcome eclipse maps from other regions of the world.


If you are a eclipse map collector and would like to network with other map collectors, drop me an email. I know several eclipse map collectors and we can share information, tips about auctions and acquisitions, and perhaps trade or sell maps. (I have several duplicates of early American eclipse maps in my collection)


Any there any maps showing the path of a solar eclipse on the earth earlier then the 1654 map published by Weigel?


I am presently researching the existence of probable 1669 eclipse map by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish missionary in the Qing dynasty court at the Beijing Observatory. Does anyone have more information about this map?


High-resolution images of many early eclipse maps are difficult to find, particularly the 19th century British eclipse maps. If any collector of eclipse maps would like to share an image of a historical map for this web site, that submission would be greatly appreciated and acknowledged.


The solar eclipse of 1780 was visited by an expedition of American astronomers who were given safe passage by the British to Penobscot Bay, Maine, but a miscalculation of the umbral path led to them just missing totality. Was there a map constructed for this eclipse?


The earliest American eclipse map I know of is in the American Almanac and Repository of Useful Information for the year 1831, followed by another map in 1834. Are there any earlier American eclipse maps? I found one book reference that an edition of Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack contained an eclipse map, but I could find no corroborating references.


I was able to find many examples of eclipse maps from the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac that are contained within this web site. These volumes can be found in Federal Repository Libraries throughout the United States and these libraries allow persons to bring a laptop computer and scanner to record these maps. The earliest American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac that I was able to scan is 1882. Does anyone have volumes between the inaugural issue of 1855 to 1881, or access to a Federal Depository Library with these early volumes and would be willing to scan these maps?


Likewise, the British Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris contains eclipse maps starting in 1834 and the French Connaissance des Temps contains eclipse maps starting in the 1850’s. Would anyone in Europe be willing to secure scans of eclipse maps from these volumes?


I know the Italian almanac from the observatory at Bologna (?) contains eclipse maps, but I was not able to locate any volumes of this almanac.


One of the important world almanacs, the Berliner Astronomische Jahrbuch, doesn’t seem to  have any eclipse maps. At least, I found not find any in about 20 volumes I checked. Does anyone know why eclipse maps are lacking from the national almanac of the country that created the first eclipse map?


Would anyone like to help by building a reference list of eclipse maps and relevant articles in Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, National Geographic, or other publications?


At present, this web site is focused on solar eclipse maps, but once the curating of solar eclipse maps is reasonably complete, I can see expanding the scope of this web site to including eclipse animations, eclipse diagrams, maps for transits of Mercury and Venus, and lunar eclipse maps. I would welcome collaboration on these documents as well.


How is the latitudinal distribution of partial solar eclipses explained?


Thank you for your assistances, Michael Zeiler