The Eclipse Is Over, Now What?

Now that the eclipse of 2017 is in the history books, the most frequent question heard at most eclipse viewing sites, especially in totality, is “when’s the next one?”

The next eclipse event will be January 31, 2018, a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse begins about 3 hours before sunrise on the west coast but only about 30 minutes before sunrise on the east coast. So Pacific and Mountain timezones will see all of the total eclipses while the show will be interrupted by moonset in the Central and Eastern timezones.

Keep those solar eclipse glasses in a safe place, you’ll need them on November 11, 2019, for the transit of mercury. Tiny Mercury will be visible as it passes infant of the sun over a 4 hour.

The next solar eclipse visible from North America is in Oct of 2023, a partial one. You’ll want a fresh pair of eclipse glasses through. Most lenses are only rated for 3 years. You’ll be all ready for the next big American solar eclipse in April of 2024. It spans from Texas to Maine.

Elsewhere in the sky, the moon is a perihelion this Wednesday. This is occurring close to the total eclipse for a reason, total eclipses can only occur when the moon is close to the Earth. If Monday’s eclipse occurred a week and a half later when the moon is at apogee, the furthest point in the moon’s orbit, the tinier moon would not be able to completely cover the sun producing an annular eclipse leaving a ring of the sun’s photosphere visible.

Category: ALL POSTS, Spacey Stuff