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Ephemeris: 04/16/2024 – A quick look at the April 8th 2024, total solar eclipse
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 8:29, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:54. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 4:42 tomorrow morning.
I saw the total solar eclipse last week Monday. This is the first chance I have to report on it. My target area ran from southwestern Indiana to Northern Ohio and decided early to stay in Lafayette IN overnight to give us a shot at going in either direction. We ended up going to southwestern Indiana to a little town called Linton, about 7 miles from the center line of the eclipse. There was relatively mild traffic going down and relatively few folks there at Humphrey’s park. Totality was glorious and the Sun’s corona was silvery and there was a red prominence sticking out of the bottom of the dark moon’s silhouette. Venus and Jupiter were also visible in the dark blue sky. I’ll have a fuller account on my blog in a few days.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The following are three frames from the video I made with a GoPro-like camera around totality to get a view of the sky conditions. In 61 years and six total solar eclipses I spent the first four just looking at the Sun. The latter two I’ve tried to soak in the ambiance of the world around me during totality. I’ve been extremely lucky in total solar eclipses in that I was never completely clouded out. The main reason for that is mobility, and not going where everyone else is going. With these six 6 eclipses I have accumulated a total of 15 minutes basking in the shade of the Moon.
Ephemeris: 04/08/2024 – Solar Eclipse Today!
This is Ephemeris for Monday, April 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 8:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:08. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
This afternoon there will be a total eclipse of the sun in the United States. But right here it’ll be a very deep partial eclipse, with the moon covering nearly 90% of the sun. For the Grand Traverse Area of Michigan, it will begin at 1:58 PM, mid-eclipse will be at 3:12 PM and the eclipse will end at 4:25 PM. In deep partial eclipses I’ve noticed that the sunlight has a slight yellowish hue. It’s possible effect of the Sun’s edge being cooler than the rest of the disk. Even if it’s cloudy here NASA will broadcast the eclipse from eight points along its route from Texas to Maine. It’s on the Internet on NASA’s YouTube channel, or in an Internet browser type NASA and ECLIPSE. Look for a link for nasa.gov, and you should be able to find out where that feed is. Good Luck!
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ephemeris: 04/05/2024 – A ready-made eclipse projector
This is Ephemeris for Friday, April 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours, setting at 8:16, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:13. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 6:24 tomorrow morning.
One quick and easy way to view next Monday’s eclipse via projection will be to use a calendar. All those little drain holes are actually pinholes, and will allow you to see multiple images of the eclipsed Sun. Multiple suns will be projected on whatever its shadow falls on. So that’s a quick and easy way of doing it. You may want to plug up some of the holes though, or the images might overlap. The eclipse will start for IPR listening area at 1:58 pm give or take a minute or two, mid-eclipse will be around 3:12 pm and the eclipse will end at 4:25 pm. If you’re wearing eclipse glasses the moon will move from lower right to upper left. If you’re using the pinhole projection method the moon will move from the upper right to lower left.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ephemeris: 04/04/2024 – Viewing the eclipse with pinhole projection.
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, April 4th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 8:14, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:15. The Moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 6:01 tomorrow morning.
If you have eclipse glasses and even if you don’t a good way perhaps the best way to view the solar eclipse is to use projection specifically pinhole projection the pinhole can act like a lens and with something as bright as the sun can cast a good visible image of the sun. Probably the best way to do it is to find a long box and cut a hole in one end. Have one long side open or partially open to view the Sun’s projected image. Cover the hole with aluminum foil and then make pinholes of various sizes, about half inch apart. The bigger the pinhole the brighter the Sun’s image but also the fuzzier it will be. The smaller the hole the sharper and dimmer the sun will be. For the IPR listening area the eclipse will start around 1:58 pm, and end around 4:25 pm.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
A long box can be used to project the image inside. The diameter of the pin hole is a compromise between sharpness and brightness of the image.
…The farther the image is projected the larger it is.
The throw of the image can be increased by using a mirror masked with a quarter of a inch or larger hole and sending the image 10 or more feet away.
Ephemeris: 03/08/2024 – We’re one month away from the last Great American Eclipse for the next 21 years
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for International Women’s Day, Friday, March 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 6:40, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:05. The Moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 7:01 tomorrow morning.
We are exactly one month from our total solar eclipse this year, so I hope you’ve gotten your eclipse glasses or whatever else you need to safely view the Sun, or make plans to drive to the path of totality. This weekend we have a time change, spring forward to daylight savings time. It’s something I don’t look forward to, because it pushes the darkness in the evening out one more hour later. Not only does the sunset later each night, but we mess with the clocks to make it even later. By the end of June and early July twilight doesn’t officially end until after midnight. Then we only get 4 1/2 hours of darkness anyway if the Moon wasn’t out.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ephemeris Extra: 03/03/2024 – Tips for viewing the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse
What is a solar eclipse?
Solar eclipses or eclipses of the Sun occur in about one in six new moons. However, one must be in the right part of the Earth to see them, which is why they may seem rare.
In a solar eclipse the moon’s shadow is cast upon the Earth. Because the Sun is a disk, the Moon’s shadow is fuzzy with sometimes a dark core. The fuzzy outer part of the shadow is called the penumbra. Observers there will see the Sun partially covered by the Moon, a partial eclipse. Observers in the dark core of the shadow are in the umbra, and see the face of the Sun completely covered by the Moon, a total eclipse. The maximum length of totality is never more than about seven minutes. Maximum for this eclipse will be 4 minutes 28 seconds in Mexico. The maximum length of the partial eclipse would be about 2 ½ hours.
What can be seen?
The outer three layers of the Sun are potentially visible to us: photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. The photosphere is the bright ball of the Sun we normally see. Looking at it for any length of time will cause blindness. Never look at the Sun’s photosphere without an approved solar filter. The other two layers can be seen during the totality of a solar eclipse. A thin red layer of gas with flame-like protrusions called prominences just above the photosphere and can normally be seen in a Hydrogen Alpha solar telescope, but easily seen in binoculars just after totality starts and before it ends. The corona is a silvery white extended solar atmosphere that can be seen out to several solar radii out from the edge of the Moon. Its shape changes hour to hour, and sometimes minute by minute.
All around you strange things happen as the Sun is covered by the Moon.
- The temperature will drop as the Sun is covered. It will be interesting to record the drop and recovery before, during and after the eclipse. Even a deep partial eclipse like what we’ll see locally will show a drop.
- Nearing totality the Sun’s light will appear somewhat yellow in hue. The revealed part of the Sun when it is mostly covered by the Moon is cooler and yellower than the central part. This is called limb darkening.
- As totality approaches and the sky darkens, streetlights will turn on.
- Also Chickens and other birds will go to roost. In the country cocks will crow before and after totality. Mosquitoes will think it’s twilight and will come out in mosquito prone areas for a snack.
- Shadow bands will be projected on flat smooth surfaces in near maximum phases of the partially eclipsed Sun. These are very subtle and are caused by atmospheric turbulence and the nearly pinpoint illumination by the Sun. It took me four total eclipses in order to be able to spot the effect on the tarmac of an airport. The nearest analog of this is seeing the shadow pattern on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day, but very much fainter.
- Look for Venus (15° lower right) and Jupiter (30° upper left) of the Sun during totality. Just before, during and after totality look around at the sky and the incoming and outgoing umbral shadow.
- Check out the colorful horizon effects.
Viewing the partial solar eclipse
They are especially difficult to use, especially for people who wear glasses and can’t remove them because they are near-sighted.
Personally I do not recommend them, instead relying on one of the projection methods.
Be especially careful about children using them.
Remember the ISO 12312-2 compliance that should be printed on them.
Never look directly at the partially eclipsed Sun without an approved solar filter. Solar filters must comply with ISO 12312-2 and transmit no more than 0.0032% of sunlight, and preferably less. Items sold as Eclipse viewing glasses must state that they comply with ISO 12312-2. People like me who wear glasses will find gaps above and below the frames of these filters where the Sun can get in, so must be used with extreme caution. No eclipse is worth your eyesight. The damage caused by looking directly at the Sun may not be known for several days after exposure, then it’s too late. I never use these filters, and prefer to project the Sun’s image on a white screen.
Pinhole projection is an easy way to project the Sun’s image. Depending on how far you want to project the image the larger the pinhole the farther and larger (and dimmer) the image can be. “Pinholes” up to 1/4 inch and maybe even half an inch can be used if you’re projecting it 10 feet or more. One can even use a mirror in an envelope with a small hole punched in it with the paper punch to project the sun’s image on the shady side of a building. That way many people can view the eclipse safely. Also try different size holes to get the best combination of size and brightness of the image. Unlike the illustration above it is best to mount the mirror on a tripod, or other support somehow, rather than holding it to keep the image steady. Using this method, the Sun’s motion due to the Earth’s rotation can be seen. Also, large sunspots may also be visible.
Local Circumstances
Local eclipse times for Traverse City: Starts (first contact) 1:58 p.m. Maximum 3:12 p.m. 89% covered Ends (last contact) 4:25 p.m. Times for other localities in northern Michigan will be within a minute or two of these values. It may be a minute or two after first contact for the first bite of the Moon to become discernible.
Eclipse2024.org provides an interactive map of the April 8, 2024 eclipse on the Internet to allow the display of eclipse times for any location: https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/statemap.html
Eclipse2024.org provides an interactive map of the April 8, 2024 eclipse on the Internet to allow the display of eclipse times for any location: https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/statemap.html.
Ephemeris: 03/01/2024 – Mr. Eclipse to give a presentation about April’s Total Solar Eclipse
This is Ephemeris for Friday, March 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 6:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:17. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 1:09 tomorrow morning.
Tonight’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will start at a special time, 7 pm, at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory, because we will join the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society via Zoom for a talk by Fred Espenak formerly of NASA. He is known as Mr. Eclipse and of course he will be talking about the April 8th total solar eclipse. Fred Espenak has been responsible for NASA’s eclipse website through the 2017 total solar eclipse. He’s chased the shadow of the Moon around the world. Now retired, he hosts two websites. One of which is mreclipse.com. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads.
You may also join the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society meeting directly: Follow this link to register for Zoom. They have room for 500 people on Zoom, and they’d like to max that out!
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ephemeris: 02/09/2024 – Two lunar months until the total solar eclipse!
This is Ephemeris for Friday, February 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 9 minutes, setting at 6:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:50. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
Today marks two lunar months before the April 8th total eclipse of the Sun. It will be partial here when nearly 90% of the Sun will be blocked by the Moon. The best place to see the total part of the eclipse is on the line from Texas through Indiana, Ohio and ending in Maine. We will not have another total eclipse visible in the continental United States until 2044 and again in 2045. The 2044 total eclipse path will only touch North Dakota and Montana at sunset, after descending south from Canada*. The eclipse of 2045 will have a path across the United States much like, but south of, the path in of the August 21st 2017 eclipse. This time passing from Northern California to Northern Florida. So it’s going to be a long drought of total solar eclipses unless one travels to other continents or go on an eclipse cruise.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
* On the radio program I have the Moon’s shadow going the other way. This is a rare eclipse where the Moon umbral shadow (the part that produces totality) starts and ends at local sunset.
Addendum
I will have Ephemeris Extra posts soon about how to observe the eclipse safely.
Ephemeris: 10/27/2023 – Report on October 14th’s partial solar eclipse and looking forward
This is Ephemeris for Friday, October 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 6:38, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:15. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:55 tomorrow morning.
Two weeks ago tomorrow we had a partial eclipse of the Sun. Unfortunately around here it was pretty cloudy. I went to the Betsie Valley District Library knowing it was cloudy and brought a program to talk about mainly eclipses that I’ve seen and a preview of next April’s eclipse, which would be even better than the one we had two weeks ago. Towards the end of my talk I was looking out towards my audience and windows. I was the only one who could see out those windows, because I was facing that direction and I saw shadows. Sure enough the Sun came out, so we all piled out with our eclipse glasses and saw the maximum of the eclipse for maybe 15 minutes before it clouded up again. So the event was indeed a success.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT –4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Below is a file to show April 8, 2024 eclipse path on Google Earth. It can be saved or used to bring up Google Earth. The file was created using Stellarium.
Ephemeris: 10/13/2023 – Tomorrow’s solar eclipse
This is Ephemeris for Friday, October 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 6 minutes, setting at 7:01, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:56. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:45 tomorrow morning.
The safest way to view tomorrow’s solar eclipse is by projection, we call it pinhole projection, although the pinhole can be up to 1/4 inch in diameter and will cast a usable image of the Sun about 6 feet. My wife once used the mirror in her compact to reflect the Sun’s image onto the north side of a building across the street. It’s probably too late to buy them, but if you have any eclipse glasses leftover from the 2017 eclipse make sure they don’t have any pinholes in them. They can be used to view the eclipse. Make sure they are ISO approved. Still projection is your safest bet. For our area the eclipse will last from 11:42 am to 2:18 pm. I’ll be at the Betsie Valley District Library in Thompsonville for the eclipse. You’ll be in good shape for next April 8th total eclipse, whose path of totality will be much closer to us.
Jerry Dobek, Northwestern Michigan College instructor will be on campus with telescopes to view the eclipse on campus.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT –4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addenda
In case of clouds, I will still be at the Betsie Valley District Library with an alternate program of my experience with five previous total solar eclipses, and a look at some future eclipses. Being a NASA Solar System Ambassador, I’ll have some NASA stickers and other things to hand out to the kids, big or small.
The next solar eclipse
The next eclipse visible from our area will occur on April 8, 2024, six months from now. It will be a total solar eclipse whose path of totality is within a day trip from our area, if it’s clear in Indiana or Ohio. I’ll have a lot more information as we approach April. On the Internet search for american eclipse 2024, or words to that effect. It’s always best to plan early.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 