Ephemeris: 04/16/2024 – A quick look at the April 8th 2024, total solar eclipse

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 8:29, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:54. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 4:42 tomorrow morning.

I saw the total solar eclipse last week Monday. This is the first chance I have to report on it. My target area ran from southwestern Indiana to Northern Ohio and decided early to stay in Lafayette IN overnight to give us a shot at going in either direction. We ended up going to southwestern Indiana to a little town called Linton, about 7 miles from the center line of the eclipse. There was relatively mild traffic going down and relatively few folks there at Humphrey’s park. Totality was glorious and the Sun’s corona was silvery and there was a red prominence sticking out of the bottom of the dark moon’s silhouette. Venus and Jupiter were also visible in the dark blue sky. I’ll have a fuller account on my blog in a few days.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The following are three frames from the video I made with a GoPro-like camera around totality to get a view of the sky conditions. In 61 years and six total solar eclipses I spent the first four just looking at the Sun. The latter two I’ve tried to soak in the ambiance of the world around me during totality. I’ve been extremely lucky in total solar eclipses in that I was never completely clouded out. The main reason for that is mobility, and not going where everyone else is going. With these six 6 eclipses I have accumulated a total of 15 minutes basking in the shade of the Moon.

Looking at the Sun and looking up the path of totality about a minute before totality starts. The Moon’s shadow is coming from that direction, as can be seen that the sky is rather dark in that direction. At the lower left is the edge of the shadow and the pinkish glow that is associated with the edge of the Moon’s shadow. The light at the upper left turn on shortly just before totality. The multi colored spot way below the Sun is the lens flare from the Sun.

We are in totality. The Sun is still overexposed with its corona. The light bar running through it is simply in the camera. The light pole lamp that the camera is parked under is lit. Since we’re looking up the eclipse path, the trailing edge of the Moon’s shadow is now visible approaching with its twilight colors at the edge. Venus can be spotted at about 5 o’clock from the Sun, just under the power line. Jupiter is out of the frame to the upper left.

A couple of minutes after totality ended and the world is coming back to normal. The sky is lightening up, the twilight colors are disappearing and the birds are beginning to chirp.