06/09/2021 – Ephemeris – The Sun will be partially eclipsed as it rises tomorrow morning

I’ll review the planets tomorrow. However, tomorrow morning, if it’s clear down to the northeastern horizon, we will get to observe, safely, the Sun rise while being in eclipse. Here’s today’s program:

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, June 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 9:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:57. The Moon, 1 day before new today, will rise with the Sun at 5:57 tomorrow morning.

The Moon rising with the Sun will also be eclipsing the Sun, so the Sun will have a big bite taken out of its left side as it rises tomorrow. We will be witnessing the last 40 some minutes of the eclipse as the Sun rises. The Sun is dangerous to look at. If you have eclipse glasses from the 2017 eclipse, use those. Otherwise, use pinhole projection from one side of a box to the opposite side. The longer the box, the bigger and dimmer the image. If using a corrugated cardboard box, make a big hole at the pinhole end, cover it with a thin piece of cardboard or aluminum foil. Punch several holes of various sizes spaced out on that end to project multiple images of the Sun, so you can choose the best to view. Good luck!

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

Addendum

 Pinhole projection is the simplest way to project the Sun’s image. A long box can be used to project the image inside. The diameter of the pinhole is a compromise between sharpness and brightness of the image. The farther the image is projected, the larger and dimmer it is. The throw of the image can be increased by using a mirror masked with a quarter of an inch or larger hole and sending the image 10 or more feet away. Credit NASA.

A Stellarium creation of what the eclipsed Sun would appear about 10 minutes after rising as seen from the Traverse City/Interlochen area.

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 (bottom lobe) or starts near sunset (top lobe). The double line with the ellipses in it is the path of where the ring is visible, the path of annularity. Locations within the grid on the right will see a partial eclipse. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Fred Espenak, adapted from https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2021Jun10A.GIF