05/18/2021 – Ephemeris – Eclipses visible in Northern Michigan this year

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 18th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 9:08, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:10. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 2:57 tomorrow morning.

This year we will see in part or in full three eclipses from our Northern Michigan location. The first will be the start of a total lunar eclipse next week Wednesday, May 26th. It will start just before sunrise, which for a full moon is around moonset. Our next eclipse will be a solar eclipse that starts, for us, before sunrise on June 10th. In fact, most of the eclipse will occur before sunrise for us in Northern Michigan. The farther north and east of us the more of the eclipse you’ll see. I’ll have more information on the lunar in the next week of programs. And the solar eclipse as we approach that date. We have a final lunar eclipse this year. That will occur in the wee morning hours of November 19th, a partial, but almost total eclipse.

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

Addendum

The four eclipses that occur in 2021

We in Northern Michigan we’ll see part of the first two and all of the third.

May 26, 2021 Total Lunar Eclipse

The visibility map for the May 26th total lunar eclipse. Note Michigan’s mitten lies between the U1 and U2, which means that the Moon will set after the partial eclipse starts, but before totality. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Fred Espenak

June 10, 2021 Annular Solar Eclipse

The visibility map for the June 10, 2021 annular solar eclipse. In an annular eclipse the Moon is too far away and appears too small to cover the face of the Sun. So, at maximum a ring of bright Sun surrounds the Moon. It’s sometimes called a ring of fire. For locations within the big floppy figure 8 the eclipse either ends near sunrise or starts near sunset. The double red line with the ellipses in it is the path of where the ring is visible. Locations within the blue grid will see a partial eclipse. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Fred Espenak.

November 19, 2021 Partial Lunar Eclipse

The visibility map for the November 19, 2021 partial eclipse. The eclipse is visible in its entirety in the morning of the 19th. This eclipse is almost total. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Fred Espenak.

December 4, 2021 Total Solar Eclipse

Visibility map for the December 4, 2021 total solar eclipse. Totality is onlt visible from the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, Credit: NASA/GSFC/Fred Espenak.