“Longest” eclipse? Uh... what? how can one eclipse last longer than any of them? It’s not like the moon slows down sometimes...
“Longest” eclipse? Uh... what? how can one eclipse last longer than any of them? It’s not like the moon slows down sometimes...
Well, first of all, you have to distinguish between an "annular eclipse" and a "total eclipse". And the range of differences in annular eclipses is going to be broader than in total eclipses.
There are varying factors in both, the distance of the moon from the earth at the time for one thing. It's a complex mechanism that is going on and it varies all the time.
So, the length of total eclipses and annular eclipses vary all over the place and yes, there are longer ones and shorter ones... :-)