04/14/2014 – Ephemeris – The total lunar eclipse is tonight after midnight.

Updated 4 p.m. EDT:  See bottom of the post.

Ephemeris for Monday, April 14th.  The sun will rise at 7:00.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 8:26.   The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:05 tomorrow morning.

We’re hoping for clear skies for tonight’s total lunar eclipse.  Actually it’s in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.  So if you’re a night owl, stay up tonight or otherwise catch all or part of it by setting your alarm clock.  Here’s the timings:   The partial phase begins as the Moon enters the earth’s inner shadow at 1:58 a.m.  Totality starts at 3:06 a.m. Totality will last until 4:24,when the upper left edge of the moon again peeks into sunlight.  The ending partial phase will end at 5:33 a.m.   If it’s clear or at least partly cloudy there are two locations in the Grand Traverse area to view the eclipse, other than your own back yard, which is perfectly acceptable. The first is the NMC Rogers Observatory, and the other is the Dune Climb parking lot at Sleeping Bear Dunes.

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

Addendum

The April 15, 2014 lunar eclipse simulated by Stellarium.  Note that Mars and the star Spica will be nearby.

As of 24 hours before the eclipse the weather prospects don’t look good for northwestern lower Michigan or all the east coast for that matter.  We’re on the edge of the clouds.  The western shore Lake Michigan and parts of the U.P. may be clear.  But things could change.

There will be a live webcast from University of Georgia at http://www.ccssc.org/webcast.html, who may be stuck with the same overcast we may have.  Hat Tip to Spaceweather.com

There is also another live stream of the eclipse from Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.  Or go to http://www.griffithobservatory.org and click on the Griffith TV button.  Coverage starts at 9:45 PDT or 12:45 a.m. EDT which is a bit more than an hour before the partial phase of the eclipse starts.  Hat Tip to Carla Johns of the NASA Museum Alliance for the links.

Here’s a link to the official NASA eclipse website for this eclipse.

Here’s a link to my in-depth discussion of the April 15, 2014 eclipse.

 Update

Here’s another link to a live feed of the eclipse:  Virtual Telescope Project.

Universe Today has more links.

The Sleeping Bear eclipse viewing has been canceled.