Upcoming Partial Eclipse

Just bumping this to the top as a reminder! Clear skies all!

I figured I should write a Racine specific blog for the upcoming partial solar eclipse. On May 20th, there will be an annular solar eclipse. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun but doesn't quite cover the Sun. The Moon has an elliptical orbit...remember "Super Moon" a couple of weeks ago? The Moon was larger because it was near perigee, or the closest it gets to Earth. Well, two weeks later, the Moon is near apogee, the farthest it gets from Earth. Therefore, the Moon appears smaller, too small to entirely cover the Sun. If you are near the center line of an annular eclipse, you see a "Ring of Fire" around the Moon.

The center line of this annular eclipse passes over Japan, the Pacific Ocean, northern California, Nevada, northern Arizona (guess where I will be?), New Mexico and the eclipse ends in west Texas. However many people north and south of the center will see a partial eclipse, including Racine.

In Racine, the Moon touches the face of the Sun at about 7:20pm CDT on May 20th (sunset is at 8:12pm). The Moon will slowly cover the Sun until sunset. At that time, over 60% of the Sun will be covered by the Moon. I used Steallarium to create an image of what you would see at sunset if you had a clear western horizon.

Now to observe the eclipse, you don't want to just look at it with your eyes. Even partially covered near sunset, the Sun is still bright enough to cause eye damage. Fortunately, eclipse shades are cheap (a buck or two). You can get them from various places. American Science and Surplus (6901 W Oklahoma in Milwaukee) carries them and I bet the Milwuakee Public Museum might as well. You can also make a pinhole viewer to observe the eclipse. Whichever you choose, you can also use it to watch the upcoming transit of Venus on June 5th (future blog).

Unfortunately, I don't see anything on the Racine Astronomical Society website indicating they will be having an event. The telscopes in the domes may have limits as to how low in the sky they can observe and, since this is sunset when the Sun is very low, they may choose not to open for it.

If you don't live in Racine and want to know what is visible from your location, check out NASA's interactive eclipse map. Just click on your location and you will get the details.

Oh, and I will be in the Grand Canyon, in the path of annularity, for this eclipse and yes, there will be pictures!