Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 1st.  The sun rises at 6:32.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 15 minutes, setting at 8:47.   The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 4:09 tomorrow morning.

(Note:  The eclipse visible from most of the United States will be interrupted by sunset.  See the Addendum for a link to NASA’s page on the eclipse.)

Let’s give you a heads up on the solar eclipse that will occur on the evening of May 20th.  In northern lower Michigan we will see the tail end of the eclipse as the moon’s shadow leaves the face of the earth.  The shadow will touch the earth in eastern Asia, cross the Pacific and into North America.  This is an annular eclipse, meaning that the moon is too far away to completely cover the face of the sun, leaving a ring (or annulus) of bright sun around the moon at the very center of the eclipse.  Some residents of northern California and southern Oregon to west Texas will be able to see this annulus.  Your visual safety is paramount when viewing an eclipse and over the next two weeks I’ll be giving you tips on how to view the eclipse safely.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Here’s a NASA Acrobat file detailing the eclipse.  http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2012-Fig01.pdf

Here’s the Eclipses of 2012 NASA page that links to the above page.  It has useful links for those, unlike us are located in the southwestern United States.