04/15/2014 – Ephemeris – One eclipse down, what’s next?

Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 15th, Tax Deadline Day.  The sun rises at 6:58.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 8:27.   The moon, at full today, will rise at 9:08 this evening.

Since I’m recording this before this morning’s eclipse, I don’t know if it was visible from the northern Lower Peninsula.  However we do have a shot at another total lunar eclipse this year.  That one is on October 8th.  Though it’s in the morning, it’s closer to dawn.  One which one can catch by going to bed early and getting up early to enjoy.  The weather prospects are somewhat better in October than they are in April.  That eclipse we’ll miss a bit of the ending partial phase as the moon sets during that time.  As a bonus, 15 days later we will see half of a partial solar eclipse, because the sun will set around mid eclipse.   That eclipse will not be total anywhere as the core of the moon’s shadow misses to the north of the Earth.

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

Addendum

There’s another eclipse I didn’t mention due to time.  It follows this one by 14 days, on April 29th.  It is an odd partial eclipse visible from the Indian Ocean, Australia and a bit of Antarctica.  It is an annular eclipse, where the moon is too far away to completely cover the bright ball of the sun.  The annular shadow touches the earth in Antarctica, but not the central part, which just misses the earth.  It’s truly an odd eclipse.  Next year will provide us with two more lunar eclipses.  The first one we’ll see a part of before the moon sets, and the second will be an evening eclipse well placed for viewing.  None of next years solar eclipses will be visible from North America.

Check out this and next year’s eclipses on the NASA Eclipse website.