12/31/2020 – Ephemeris – Looking ahead at the eclipses of 2021

This is Ephemeris for New Year’s Eve, Thursday, December 31st. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:12. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 6:43 this evening.

I’ve had enough of 2020, and I hope in 2021 that we’ll break the grip of this pandemic. Looking up next year we will get glimpses of three of the four eclipses that will occur in 2021. We will get a chance to see the beginning of an eclipse of the Moon at sunrise as it sets on May 26th. Fifteen days later, on June 10th we will be able to see the Sun rise while being partially eclipsed by the Moon. People in western Ontario, up through northern Canada, then across the North Pole and into Siberia will get to see an annular or ring of fire eclipse of the Sun. On November 19th, clouds willing, we will get to see an almost total eclipse of the Moon that morning with over 97 percent of the Moon covered by the Earth’s inner shadow.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

What might it look like when the Sun will rise in eclipse for the Grand Traverse region of Michigan at about 6:10 am June 10, 2021. Note that you, or actually your location, is involved in what you can see of a solar eclipse. Created using Stellarium.

What the lunar eclipse maximum might look like at 4:04 am (9:04 UT), November 19, 2021. Created using Stellarium.

There is a fourth eclipse in 2021, a total solar eclipse that is mainly visible in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica on December 4, 2021.