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Ephemeris: 07/20/2026 – Important space anniversaries

July 20, 2026 3 comments

This is Ephemeris for Monday, July 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 9:21, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:17. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 12:17 tomorrow morning.

July 20th is a special date for this country’s space program and a personal one for me.  57 years ago in 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, the greatest achievement in the history of space flight.  Seven years later the robot lander Viking 1 landed on Mars.  NASA wanted it to be July 4th, 1976, the Bicentennial, but couldn’t find a smooth landing site in time.  My own connection to the date came in 1963, my first total solar eclipse. We traveled to Quebec province along side the St. Maurice River to view about 60 seconds of totality.  It was the first of six total solar eclipses I’ve seen, all from the U.S. or Canada.  In each case it was clear or clear enough to see the sun’s corona, a feature only visible from the earth during totality.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Neil Armstrong about to step off the LM onto the surface of the moon, July 20, 1969.
Neil Armstrong about to step off the LM onto the surface of the moon, July 20, 1969. Credit: NASA.
July 20, 1976
First image sent back from Viking 1 after landing on Mars, July 20, 1976. Credit: NASA/JPL.
Totality
Total Solar Eclipse, July 20, 1963: A shot with a 50mm lens with a guessed exposure. Thanks to GIMP and modern digital processing of the original film image, I was able to recover the over exposed image. But like all eclipse photographs, doesn’t really show it as the eye reveals the dynamic light levels of the corona.

Categories: Anniversary, Ephemeris Program, Solar Eclipse, Space History Tags: , , ,