ICE said it won’t deport people for seeking medical care. Immigrants won’t believe them.

More of the same at the southern border Undocumented immigrants aren’t likely to trust ICE’s announced halt in enforcement With immigration courts and offices closing, more case backlogs and delays Don’t miss anything! Sign up to get TMC’s smart analysis in your inbox, three days a week. Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer Read more: Red states are finally starting to Google ‘coronavirus’ 3 ways the coronavirus could end Trump’s presidency The House moved quickly on a covid-19 response bill. These 4 takeaways explain what’s likely to happen next. Trump declared two different kinds of emergencies for covid-19. There might soon be 52. China is also relying on propaganda to tackle the covid-19 crisis Wuhan officials tried to cover up covid-19 — and sent it careening outward Covid-19 reveals how China’s internal politics now affect the whole world China’s early warning system didn’t work on covid-19. Here’s the story. Why China’s politics makes it easier — and harder — to control disease outbreaks

On March 17, President Trump announced plans to close the southern border to asylum seekers. “We need the Wall more than ever!” Trump tweeted, though the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that physical barriers will not stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, and despite the fact that the United States has more cases per capita than does Mexico.
Would the closure stop the spread of the virus? Here’s what we know — and what to look out for.
More of the same at the southern border
Trump has treated the coronavirus pandemic as a way to extend his broad anti-immigration platform, characterizing the disease as a “foreign virus.” This week, the State Department warned Americans not to travel abroad, and the White House first closed the border with Canada and then with Mexico for nonessential travel. Last week, Trump announced a 30-day ban on travel from most of Europe and soon added more countries to the banned list. These restrictions on otherwise legal travel — whether it be for work, leisure or another reason — use the same legal authority as the series of travel bans started in January 2017.
Meanwhile, the United States has announced even stricter policies around stopping immigrants at the southern border, and it continues to detain asylum seekers. Private detention companies hold about 15,000 immigration detainees on any given day, including both recent arrivals and those present in the United States for decades.
Those in closed facilities are at particularly high risk should the virus enter the facility, which may happen soon. This week, a corrections officer at a New Jersey jail that houses immigrant detainees tested positive for the coronavirus. To protect detainees nationwide, immigrant advocacy groups have called on the government to close immigration detention facilities. In my own work in the country’s largest family detention center, I have seen families side by side, sharing a space where it would be next to impossible to avoid the virus. I had planned another trip with law students to the detention center this month — but scrapped it rather than risk bringing the virus in.
Yet while public agencies such as the New York City Board of Correction are calling for that city’s jail system to rapidly release detainees who aren’t an immediate danger to reduce the risk of a fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, the federal government is taking a different tack. Instead of releasing migrants, the administration announced an upcoming policy that all asylum seekers arriving at the southern border will be turned back to Mexico with no due process, purportedly to keep out the virus.
But over the past three years, the Trump administration has steadily tightened immigration policy to make it increasingly difficult for refugees to get into the United States. That includes the Migrant Protection Protocols, which force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, and restricting certain claims that were once accepted reasons for asylum. That makes this latest step appear to be another push toward the goal of eliminating asylum.
But the United States has higher rates of the virus than does Central America. Reverse contagion is more likely, with deportations spreading the virus southward. Central American countries are taking measures to protect themselves: Guatemala has suspended flights into the country, including of Guatemalans deported by the United States.
Undocumented immigrants aren’t likely to trust ICE’s announced halt in enforcement
On March 18, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it would “delay enforcement actions” of undocumented immigrants, except those who have committed crimes or threaten public safety — and specifically emphasized that ICE agents would stay away from hospitals and medical care facilities to encourage everyone to seek care.
Nevertheless, undocumented immigrants fear stepping into a hospital, worrying that their status will be identified and tracked — if not now, then later. They are not likely to believe such reassurances, given the past several years of ever-increasing monitoring and enforcement even of sympathetic noncriminal immigrants. In fact, the day before the announcement, ICE was continuing its immigration raids, with N95 masks on hand. Further, undocumented and lawful immigrants alike have a new reason to fear seeking health care in particular because of the public charge rule that went into effect in February, which assesses whether green card applicants are likely to ever need public benefits. Using Medicaid generally hurts applicants, with an exception for emergency Medicaid — now including covid-19-related testing and treatment.
Despite official reassurances, however, the administration’s overall anti-immigrant stance will most likely keep immigrants away from health care, increasing the risk of spread more broadly.
With immigration courts and offices closing, more case backlogs and delays
The administration has announced that it will close immigration courts and asylum offices in certain cities, with more likely to follow. The court system alone has a backlog of more than 180,000 pending cases, many added during the 2019 partial government shutdown. The longer the courts are closed, the greater the backlog will become — and immigrants already wait up to four years to have their cases heard in court. As time passes, cases can weaken because of changing conditions, even as immigrants’ lives in the United States become more established. Where courts do remain open, groups of immigrants await hearings in crowded waiting rooms well over the 10-person limit recommended by the CDC, again risking their own and the public’s health.
Meanwhile, as of March 18, all U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices are closed. These offices handle citizenship interviews, routine fingerprinting for background checks, and other in-person application processing. While some applications may not be time-sensitive, others’ immigration status is at serious risk because of these closures. For example, recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are urgently submitting their renewal paperwork before the upcoming Supreme Court decision that could end the DACA program, expected by June. If a DACA renewal application is filed by the time of the decision, the government may still process it — no matter what the court does. But with USCIS offices closed for essential public health reasons, DACA applications are stalled.
The United States is likely to continue tightening its borders, enforcing at least some immigration violators, and detaining asylum seekers. Meanwhile, the backlogs in immigration court cases and application processing will increase dramatically, putting vulnerable immigrants further at risk of losing protection.
Don’t miss anything! Sign up to get TMC’s smart analysis in your inbox, three days a week.
Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer
Read more:
Red states are finally starting to Google ‘coronavirus’
3 ways the coronavirus could end Trump’s presidency
The House moved quickly on a covid-19 response bill. These 4 takeaways explain what’s likely to happen next.
Trump declared two different kinds of emergencies for covid-19. There might soon be 52.
China is also relying on propaganda to tackle the covid-19 crisis
Wuhan officials tried to cover up covid-19 — and sent it careening outward
Covid-19 reveals how China’s internal politics now affect the whole world
China’s early warning system didn’t work on covid-19. Here’s the story.
Why China’s politics makes it easier — and harder — to control disease outbreaks


How has foreign travel been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign travel is being severely restricted in an attempt to prevent further spread of the disease.  Travel bans are in place for Americans traveling to certain foreign countries, as well as for foreigners who want to travel to the U.S.  According to research, over 93% of the world's population live in countries with sudden new border restrictions.  It is estimated that at least 140 countries have closed their borders to some or all foreign travelers.  Information about current rules and regulations, as well as indications as to what factors influence those decisions, are relevant.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign travel is being severely restricted in an attempt to prevent further spread of the disease.  Travel bans are in place for Americans traveling to certain foreign countries, as well as for foreigners who want to travel to the U.S.  According to research, over 93% of the world's population live in countries with sudden new border restrictions.  It is estimated that at least 140 countries have closed their borders to some or all foreign travelers.  Information about current rules and regulations, as well as indications as to what factors influence those decisions, are relevant but anything about air travel is not.

Find current travel restriction information relevant to this question.

‘We’re like refugees’: Americans departing virus-hit Wuhan criticize U.S. government response

FUZHOU, China —
Some 530 Americans stuck in the Wuhan area were aboard two evacuation flights en route from China to the United States on Wednesday, after extended delays that appear to be linked to the political frictions between Beijing and Washington.
The two planes from Kalitta Air, an American cargo carrier, arrived at Wuhan airport late Tuesday. Photos from the airport at 7 a.m. local time Wednesday showed medical staff in protective equipment carrying out health checks on passengers in masks.
Some had been in the airport for 48 hours waiting for information, with speculation that flight authorizations had been delayed by Chinese authorities.
“Two planes have departed Wuhan en route to the United States,” a State Department spokesperson said.
For many of the hundreds of Americans at the airport, the evacuation had been a frustrating experience, compounded by the fact that the U.S. government had evacuated its consulate in Wuhan immediately after the city at the center of the deadly coronavirus outbreak went into lockdown.
“I think what the U.S. government failed to anticipate is the fact that their consular officers here probably have made a lot of local connections and wish it would have made it easier to coordinate everything,” said Chunlin Leonhard, a law professor at Loyola University who had been in China on a fellowship and had gone to visit relatives 250 miles outside Wuhan when the lockdown began.
“Because of their departure, everything is left to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which is pretty far away and where they really don’t know the local conditions that well. I think that’s part of the reason why things have been so chaotic,” Leonhard said, estimating that she had 10 phone calls asking for the same information.
“I know they’re shorthanded and they are trying to get everything done,” she said. “But that they evacuated the Wuhan consulate, which really should have been at the forefront of helping the American citizens who are stuck here in Hubei.”
About 1,000 Americans were in Wuhan and the surrounding area when the city went into lockdown on Jan. 23, part of a Chinese government effort to contain the spread of a new coronavirus that began in the city.
The virus has since radiated out from Wuhan, infecting almost 25,000 people in China and killing more than 490. The majority of those have been in Wuhan or surrounding Hubei province.
Doctors say that the pneumonia-like virus is transmitted through respiratory droplets or fecal matter. There is also concern it may live on surfaces for some time, enabling transmission through contact.
The U.S government closed its consulate in Wuhan and evacuated its staff and their dependents last month, but it has been difficult for the other Americans in the city to get out.
Those difficulties have been compounded, some Americans in the city say, by a feeling that their government has deserted them.
“We’re like refugees here,” said one woman from New Jersey who was visiting family in Wuhan for the Lunar New Year holiday when she got trapped in the city. She spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her family members there from Chinese government retribution. “It’s been so frustrating, mainly because of the lack of information,” she said.
Others at the airport, while grateful to be getting out, expressed similar sentiments.
“I’ve been sitting here with people and trying to encourage them, keep everybody’s spirits as up, but it’s hard,” said John McGrory, a writer from Columbus, Ohio, who has been living in Wuhan for six years. “The other day it hit me, you know, it hit me hard. I don’t think we really understand the toll that it takes on you.”
Acknowledging that the U.S. Embassy in China is under pressure, McGrory echoed concerns that the evacuation of the consulate had made it more difficult for the Americans in the city.
“I was a little taken aback by that. I was like, ‘Okay, you guys leave. What about the 1,000 Americans here? Who’s looking out for our best interests?’ ” he said.
Furthermore, they described scenes of chaos at the airport, with no officials there to help them and not even a sign indicating where to gather. This was in contrast to the Russian evacuation, where consular officials had set up an information desk with a Russian flag and had provided buses to bring Russian citizens through the checkpoints into the airport.
Americans described hours-long delays at the checkpoints to get through Chinese security.
Some had been in the airport since 4 a.m. local time on Monday, waiting for information about their flight. They were still there more than 48 hours later, and photos supplied by people at the airport showed vending machines empty except for a couple of juice boxes.
Scott Walker, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said “the U.S. government is coordinating closely with the PRC government to deliver humanitarian assistance and to evacuate additional U.S. citizens from Wuhan,” using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
On Monday, on a trip to Uzbekistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that officials were “working through the details” of the evacuation. “We’re working closely and hand-in-hand with the Chinese government to try and resolve what is now this global epidemiological challenge,” he said.
But the Chinese government, like some of the Americans in the airport, is not impressed with the U.S. government’s decision to pull out staff from Wuhan, calling Washington’s response an “overreaction” that had unnecessarily alarmed people.
“The U.S. government hasn’t provided any substantive assistance to us, but it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday.
“What it has done could only create and spread fear, which is a very bad example,” she said, citing figures of how many people died in the U.S. each year from influenza, a number that is exponentially higher than the number of coronavirus deaths.
anna.fifield@washpost.com


Governments step up coronavirus response as U.S. cases top 500

Governments intensified their efforts Sunday to combat the global spread of the novel coronavirus, as Saudi Arabia followed Italy in enacting new travel restrictions, Iran suspended flights to Europe, and the United States, where the number of cases topped 500, warned citizens against cruise travel.
Uncertainty continued to permeate the response effort, however, amid muddled directives from the Trump administration and reports of some patients unable to access testing. A virus-stricken cruise ship made its way to California to dock — only for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to decline to discuss the details of the federal response plan during a national television interview.
The  Department of Health and Human Services said later Sunday that the Grand Princess cruise ship’s more than 3,500 passengers, at least 21 of whom have tested positive for the coronavirus, will be quarantined in California, Texas and Georgia.
Some White House officials privately believe the number of U.S. cases will double — or more — in the next 48 hours. At least 21 people have died.
Officials in Washington said Sunday the city’s first confirmed case is the Rev. Timothy Cole, rector of Christ Church Georgetown. Cole has been hospitalized since Thursday and is in stable condition, officials said. A church spokesman said Cole was present for three services last Sunday attended by 550 people.
Virginia announced a second case on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in the Washington area to nine.
As the number of cases rises nationwide, public health officials are getting a better sense of the scale of the crisis, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday. The outlook, he said, is worrisome.
“Unfortunately, that better sense is not encouraging, because we’re seeing community spread,” Fauci said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He echoed the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for older people and those with underlying health conditions to refrain from traveling by cruise ship or air.
“If you’re a person with an underlying condition . . . particularly an elderly person with an underlying condition, you need to think twice about getting on a plane, on a long trip — and not only think twice, just don’t get on a cruise ship,” he said.
The State Department on Sunday afternoon went one step further than Fauci, issuing a statement recommending that all U.S. citizens avoid taking cruises. The agency noted that other countries with strict screening procedures have stopped passengers on cruise ships from disembarking or subjected them to lengthy quarantine periods.
Over the weekend, some countries took increasingly drastic measures in an effort to contain the virus.
In Iran, the epicenter of a wider outbreak of the coronavirus across the Middle East, 49 new deaths and more than 700 new cases were reported Sunday, as authorities urged citizens to stay home and avoid travel between cities.
The country’s flagship carrier IranAir suspended flights to Europe because of “restrictions” placed on the airline, state media reported, citing Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization.
Saudi Arabia suspended travel to and from a key eastern province and ordered businesses and government offices there closed after confirming four new cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 11. Authorities temporarily restricted traffic in and out of Qatif province, state media reported, quoting an official at the Interior Ministry.
And in Italy, authorities have launched a plan to lock down large swaths of the country’s hard-hit north, where virologists said they have traced the epidemic to an outbreak at a car parts manufacturer in Germany. Experts believe an infected employee from Shanghai visited the manufacturer and then a person infected with the virus probably traveled from Germany to the region of Italy hit hardest by the virus in late January.
Egypt, meanwhile, had its first death related to the virus on Sunday. A 60-year-old German tourist died in a Red Sea hospital after being infected, the country’s health ministry said in a statement.
His death came a day after Health Ministry officials announced dozens of new cases of the virus on a Nile cruise ship, although it was not immediately known whether the German tourist was a passenger on the ship.
Some reports have also emerged of Americans being unable to access coronavirus testing because of decisions made at the local level.
In a Facebook post shared widely on Saturday, Maggie McDow, 46, a D.C. resident, said that to her alarm, the D.C. Department of Health overruled an emergency room doctor treating her Friday at George Washington University Hospital, preventing her from being tested for the virus.
“It’s really worrisome to me when a doctor feels you should have a test and someone’s overruling them,” McDow said in a phone interview Saturday while self-quarantined with achiness and chills. “To me that’s just wrong.”
McDow had traveled to Thailand and through the airport in Seoul on a recent trip. A top Health Department official said McDow did not qualify for a test because airport exposure, even in a country like Korea with community spread of the disease, does not warrant testing.
The response to the crisis at the federal level has also prompted criticism, with some arguing that Trump administration officials — including the president himself — have delivered mixed messages.
In an appearance Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week,” Carson declined to discuss the details of the federal plan for quarantining the passengers of the Grand Princess cruise ship. Carson would say only that Vice President  Pence and CEOs of major cruise lines met Saturday and would come up with a plan “within 72 hours of that meeting.”
Later Sunday, HHS identified the four federal facilities to which the passengers will be transferred — an announcement that prompted concern from some officials in San Antonio, which has hosted more than 100 evacuees since February and is expected to receive even more.
In his “This Week” appearance, Carson also advised Americans to “go about your normal daily activities if you are healthy,” and “if you are not healthy, think very seriously about attending places where there are crowds.”
Some experts have advised that limiting exposure to crowds is a smart step for all Americans, not just unhealthy ones, to take, and several  organizations have reassessed their plans for conferences and large-scale events in recent weeks. The AFL-CIO, the largest group of labor unions in the country, announced Sunday that it is canceling its presidential forum, which had been scheduled for later this week in Orlando.
Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said in a phone interview Sunday that studies of previous large flu outbreaks suggest that major “social distancing” measures can limit the spread of infectious disease. These steps include closing schools for an extended period, canceling large gatherings such as conferences and having people work from home.
“Those kinds of social distancing measures, if taken early and of sufficient duration, were very effective in reducing the transmission of and mortality from influenza, and eased the burden on the health system,” Michaud said.
But he added that the fact that there’s been a delay in testing is “holding up the decision-making process” on whether to impose such precautions.
The  campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former vice president Joe Biden and President Trump have all said they will move ahead with plans to hold public events despite mounting concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. Sanders also plans to hold a roundtable Monday with public health experts in Detroit to discuss the virus and how the country should address it.
Michaud noted that the candidates might soon find themselves facing obstacles, however, if local officials decide to limit crowds from gathering in possible coronavirus hotspots.
“Campaigns should be considering alternatives for massive campaign rallies, because they might be a victim of these measures,” he said.
felicia.sonmez@washpost.com
juliet.eilperin@washpost.com
kim.bellware@washpost.com


State Dept. lifts ‘do not travel’ advisory for Mexico as border closure is due to expire

The U.S. State Department has lowered its travel advisory for Mexico to a Level 3 from its highest possible Level 4, days before the U.S.-Mexico border closure is due to expire on Sept. 21.
The modified travel advisory says U.S. travelers should “reconsider travel to Mexico due to covid-19” as well as “crime and kidnapping.” A border closure restricting nonessential travel has been in place between the United States and Mexico since March 21 in an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
The border closure terms only apply to land and water crossings, as flights between the United States and Mexico have largely continued since the early days of the pandemic. Until last week, the State Department’s Mexico advisory was a Level 4 (do not travel) nationwide. Some less-visited regions of Mexico remain classified Level 4 for “crime and kidnapping.”
The popular resort areas of Cabo San Lucas, Cancún and Cozumel have been allowing U.S. travelers who fly into the country to visit without required quarantines or coronavirus tests. Instead, Mexican airports have been carrying out health-screening procedures such as temperature checks, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 3 Travel Health Notice for Mexico due to COVID-19,” the advisory states. “Mexico has lifted stay at home orders in some areas and resumed some transportation and business operations. Visit the Embassy’s COVID-19 page for more information on COVID-19 in Mexico.”
Mexico has seen a total of 668,000 coronavirus cases and more than 70,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, with daily new cases peaking in August before lowering and holding steady in the range of 4,000 to 6,000 per day since then. The United States has reported more than 6 million total coronavirus cases and 190,000 deaths, with the peak in daily new cases hitting mid-July, at more than 75,000.
The change comes soon after some major tourist sites in Mexico reopened, including Teotihuacán, a UNESCO World Heritage Site outside of Mexico City. The only area in Mexico that has a higher covid-19 rate than Mexico City is the tourist-frequented state of Baja California Sur, which includes Los Cabos. Subregions that have earned the World Travel and Tourism Council’s “Safe Travels stamp,” which certifies a locale follows health protocols established by the WTTC, include Los Cabos, Cancun, Riviera Maya, Riviera Nayarit, Yucatán, Jalisco and the islands of Cozumel.
“CDC recommends travelers avoid all nonessential international travel to Mexico. Travelers at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 should consider postponing all travel, including essential travel, to Mexico,” according to the CDC website. “Local policies at your destination may require you to be tested for COVID-19 before you are allowed to enter the country. If you test positive on arrival, you may be required to isolate for a period of time. You may even be prevented from returning to the United States, as scheduled.”
Read more:
Where can Americans travel to in the Caribbean?
What to know about getting tested for the coronavirus to travel
Miami airport officials seize $490,000 stuffed into an accent chair passing through customs


When will there be a lunar eclipse visible from DC?

I'm interested in what opportunities there are to view a lunar eclipse in the next ten years.  I'm less interested in past events except for the most recent last event.  Information on lunar eclipses is relevant, especially about how to best view them. Relevant documents include NASA.

Find upcoming lunar eclipse viewing opportunities for this question.

These visual aids show you exactly what the eclipse will look like in your location

The percent of sun coverage and the path of totality across the United States during the solar eclipse. (NASA)
There’s no shortage of great resources to learn about the highly anticipated total solar eclipse happening on Aug. 21 (now just a few days away!). We’ve discussed what to expect both here in Washington and other parts of the country.
If you’re just starting to tune in, or are still looking for a visual guide to the eclipse at your viewing location, a couple of sites stand above the pack.
One is this 3-D eclipse Web application, developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It allows you to run simulations of the eclipse by clicking any location on Earth. A nice feature about NASA’s app is that it shows the perspective of the eclipse from space. By moving your cursor, you can track the path of the moon’s shadow (both the darker umbra and lighter penumbra) as it races across North America.
(NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
If you’re looking for something more streamlined with a more Earth-centric view of the sky, timeanddate.com is another great resource.
Capital Weather Gang’s Angela Fritz explains what could happen to your eyes if you were to watch the Aug. 21 eclipse without special sunglasses and how to spot the ones that work.
The Norway-based company is a repository of information on various timekeeping- and astronomy-related topics, including Monday’s solar eclipse. Live animations give a minute-by-minute play of how the eclipse will unfold in hundreds of cities and towns across the country. Just enter your location in the search box, and you can watch how the moon’s shadow will track across the sun, as well as start and end times of each phase of the eclipse.
How and why the moon’s path across the sun varies
If you’re an astronomy geek like myself, you’ve probably noticed that the track of the moon’s shadow across the face of the sun differs depending on your location. For example, in Salem, Ore., and Charleston, S.C. — two cities in the path of totality — the moon will approach and move away from the sun at different angles when the eclipse starts and ends.

Moon position with respect to the sun 30 minutes after the solar eclipse begins in Salem, Ore. and Charleston, S.C. (timeanddate.com; used with permission)
Eclipse watchers in Salem will see the moon take a nearly straight-line path across the sun in an up-down, northeast-southwest trajectory. In Charleston, however, the moon will approach the sun from the upper to center-right and swing down across the solar disk in a U-shaped path.
What causes the shape and angle of the moon’s trajectory across the sun to differ by location? It’s not the easiest thing to visualize, but it’s mainly influenced by your latitude (how far north or south you are from the path of the moon’s shadow), as well as the sun’s height and position in the sky with respect to Earth’s horizon when the eclipse begins.
If you’re not lucky enough to watch the eclipse from within the 70-mile path of totality, the orientation of the moon’s maximum sun coverage also depends on your latitude and where the sun appears in the sky with respect to Earth’s horizon throughout the eclipse.
Generally speaking, here’s what to expect:
- The greater your distance from the path of totality, the less the sun will be covered — and the shorter the duration of the partial eclipse from start to finish.
- If you’re north of the path of totality, the moon covers the lower portion of the sun’s disk, while the upper rim remains exposed.
- If you’re south of the path of totality, the moon covers more of the upper portion of the sun. In the western United States, cities south of the path of totality will typically see the upper and left half of the sun obscured.
Here’s how the eclipse will unfold in 10 major cities
Below are several images and links to live animations that show how the solar eclipse will progress in Washington and nine other cities across the Lower 48 — including two in the path of totality.
If you’re looking for your specific viewing location not listed below, you’ll probably find it find it here. Note from the graphics that “direction” indicates the compass-based orientation of the sun in the sky during each phase of the eclipse, while “altitude” is the sun’s height above the horizon. All times shown are local.
Washington, D.C.
Click here for a full animation of the eclipse in D.C. (timeanddate.com)
In D.C., the partial solar eclipse begins at 1:17 p.m. The moon will approach the right-hand edge of the sun, then pivot around the center of the sun’s disk. The peak of the eclipse arrives at 2:42 p.m., when 81.1 percent of the sun will be obscured. The eclipse ends as the moon leaves the sun’s center-left edge at 4:01 p.m.
Seattle
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
Seattle lies just north of the path of totality, so residents will see a partial solar eclipse. When the eclipse starts at 9:08 a.m., the moon will approach the upper-right-hand edge of the sun. It will then pivot around the center of the sun’s disk, leaving a crescent of the sun exposed. At the peak of the eclipse (10:20 a.m.), 91.8 percent of the sun will be obscured. The eclipse ends when the moon leaves the sun’s lower left edge at 11:38 a.m.
Phoenix
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
In Phoenix, the partial solar eclipse begins at 9:13 a.m. The moon will sink down across the sun’s upper edge from nearly straight above, then slide down to cover the center-left portion of the solar disk. At 10:33 a.m. the eclipse reaches its peak, with 63.1 percent of the sun obscured. As the eclipse ends at noon, the moon’s shadow will depart the center and lower-left portion of the sun’s edge.
If you’re looking for Los Angeles on this list, note that the eclipse in Phoenix will closely resemble how it appears in Los Angeles. The main difference is that in Los Angeles, the sun will be about 1 percent less obscured. In L.A., the eclipse starts eight minutes earlier and the maximum eclipse occurs at 10:21 a.m.
St. Louis
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
St. Louis is tricky. I’ve included it because many people assume the city will see a total solar eclipse, when in fact, the difference between seeing a partial vs. total eclipse will be a matter of mere miles from the city center. Maps from NASA show the path of totality will pass just south of the Gateway City. Note how the graphic for St. Louis doesn’t mention the “full eclipse” phase, as shown with Nashville and Charleston further down this list.
St. Louis residents debating whether it’s worth driving a few extra miles to see 100 percent coverage vs. only 99 percent, consider this: Even though 99 percent sounds impressive, that 1 percent difference in coverage will have an enormous difference on how dark the sky gets. At 99 percent obscuration, the sun will still be 10,000 times brighter than it would be in the path of totality where the sun is 100 percent obscured.
Chicago
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
Chicago will see a partial solar eclipse, beginning at 11:54 a.m. The moon will approach the upper-right-hand edge of the sun, then slowly rotate around the center of the sun’s disk. The peak of the eclipse arrives at 1:19 p.m., when 86.8 percent of the sun will be obscured — the upper rim of the sun’s disk remaining visible. The eclipse ends as the moon leaves the sun’s center-left edge at 2:42 p.m.
Nashville
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
Nashville will have the privilege of witnessing a total solar eclipse. The partial eclipse begins at 11:58 a.m., as the moon starts to drift over the upper-right portion of the sun’s disk. Totality begins at 1:27 p.m. and will last one minute and 59 seconds. At that time, viewers will be able to see the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere. As the eclipse progresses, the sun will gradually reappear from right to left. It ends when the moon’s shadow exits the center and upper-right portion of the sun’s disk at 2:54 p.m.
Atlanta
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
Atlanta lies about 60 miles south of the path of totality, so residents there won’t see a total solar eclipse. The eclipse begins at 1:05 p.m., and throughout the event the moon will take a U-shaped path across the sun’s disk, similar to Nashville and Charleston. But because Atlanta lies outside the path of totality, a small crescent of the sun’s lower disk will remain visible when the eclipse peaks at 2:36 p.m. The maximum sun coverage will be 97.1 percent, which will be a sight to behold, but not quite the full experience. As the eclipse ends at 4:01 p.m., the moon will be seen leaving the upper-left edge of the sun.
Charleston, S.C.
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
Assuming the weather cooperates, Charleston will be the only city to witness a total solar eclipse on the East Coast. When the eclipse begins at 1:16 p.m., the moon will drift over the upper-right portion of the sun’s disk. Totality begins at 2:47 p.m. and will last one minute and 38 seconds. As the eclipse continues, the sun will reappear from right to left. The eclipse ends when the moon departs the center/upper-left portion of the sun’s disk at 4:09 p.m.
New York City
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
In New York, the partial solar eclipse begins at 1:23 p.m. The moon will approach the right-hand edge of the sun, and then pivot around the center of the sun’s disk. The peak of the eclipse arrives at 2:44 p.m., when 71.4 percent of the sun will be obscured. The eclipse ends as the moon leaves the sun’s left edge at 4 p.m.
Miami
Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com)
In Miami, the moon’s shadow will begin to cross the upper-right portion of the sun at 1:26 p.m. The moon will approach the upper-right edge of the sun, then pivot around the center of the sun’s disk. At the peak of the eclipse (2:58 p.m.), 78.3 percent of the sun will be obscured. The eclipse ends as the moon leaves the sun’s upper-left edge at 4:20 p.m.
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September begins with a ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse over Africa

(NASA) Nature provides a cosmic gift to open September: A heavenly ring of fire around the moon. The last time an annular eclipse occurred was on April 29, 2014. An annular eclipse is very similar to a total eclipse. The moon glides between the Earth and the sun, but the moon is slightly farther out now, so it does not fully block the sun. Because of this, a ring of fire is created around the moon as it passes in front of the sun. Slooh.com is a webcasting site specializing in astronomical events. Its broadcast starts at 2:45 a.m. Thursday, Eastern. Astronomer Paul Cox provides the cosmic play-by-play, as other astronomers Bob Berman and Eric Edelman add color. Joining the broadcast will be Fr. James Kurzynski of the Vatican Observatory, Shaykh Abdulbary Yahya of the Al Maghrib Institute, and psychologist Kate Russo — all of whom will provide a human outlook on the eclipse experience. Meanwhile, the Astronomical Society Southern Africa’s YouTube stream begins at 3 a.m., where the group will have properly filtered cameras providing visual feeds during the mostly partial phases. Each eclipse belongs to a series — called a saros — and this is number 39 out of 71 eclipses in Saros 135. Each eclipse within a saros is separated by 18 years. The first eclipse in the Saros 135 family happened on July 5, 1331, and the last one will be Aug. 17, 2593. This family’s previous eclipse was an annular event on Aug. 22, 1998, and the next one will be annular on Sept. 12, 2034. On Thursday, the eclipse centerline path includes Gabon, Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar, while a partial solar eclipse can be seen through most of Africa and the southern part of Saudi Arabia, according to Espenak. For sky gazers in southern Tanzania, the greatest eclipse starts at 09:07 Universal (5:07 a.m. Eastern) when it peaks at 3 minutes and 6 seconds, and the shadowy path is 62 miles wide, says Espenak. If you’re reading this from Africa, always protect your eyes during any type of solar eclipse. In mid-September, Earth’s sky gazers can enjoy a Harvest Moon penumbral lunar eclipse (the moon gets slightly darker) on Sept. 16. For those of us in North America, we won’t be able to see the eclipse live — although we can enjoy the romantic, full Harvest Moon. Slooh.com will carry that cosmic action

(NASA)
Nature provides a cosmic gift to open September: A heavenly ring of fire around the moon. The last time an annular eclipse occurred was on April 29, 2014.
An annular eclipse is very similar to a total eclipse. The moon glides between the Earth and the sun, but the moon is slightly farther out now, so it does not fully block the sun. Because of this, a ring of fire is created around the moon as it passes in front of the sun.
Observers in the central region of Africa can see it in person, but the rest of us will have to watch online. In the United States, you can watch two ways — Slooh.com and the Astronomical Society Southern Africa’s YouTube channel. Get a nap and set the alarm — it’s very early.
Slooh.com is a webcasting site specializing in astronomical events. Its broadcast starts at 2:45 a.m. Thursday, Eastern. Astronomer Paul Cox provides the cosmic play-by-play, as other astronomers Bob Berman and Eric Edelman add color. Joining the broadcast will be Fr. James Kurzynski of the Vatican Observatory, Shaykh Abdulbary Yahya of the Al Maghrib Institute, and psychologist Kate Russo — all of whom will provide a human outlook on the eclipse experience.
Meanwhile, the Astronomical Society Southern Africa’s YouTube stream begins at 3 a.m., where the group will have properly filtered cameras providing visual feeds during the mostly partial phases.
Each eclipse belongs to a series — called a saros — and this is number 39 out of 71 eclipses in Saros 135. Each eclipse within a saros is separated by 18 years. The first eclipse in the Saros 135 family happened on July 5, 1331, and the last one will be Aug. 17, 2593.
This family’s previous eclipse was an annular event on Aug. 22, 1998, and the next one will be annular on Sept. 12, 2034.
On Thursday, the eclipse centerline path includes Gabon, Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar, while a partial solar eclipse can be seen through most of Africa and the southern part of Saudi Arabia, according to Espenak.
For sky gazers in southern Tanzania, the greatest eclipse starts at 09:07 Universal (5:07 a.m. Eastern) when it peaks at 3 minutes and 6 seconds, and the shadowy path is 62 miles wide, says Espenak.
If you’re reading this from Africa, always protect your eyes during any type of solar eclipse.
In mid-September, Earth’s sky gazers can enjoy a Harvest Moon penumbral lunar eclipse (the moon gets slightly darker) on Sept. 16. For those of us in North America, we won’t be able to see the eclipse live — although we can enjoy the romantic, full Harvest Moon. Slooh.com will carry that cosmic action starting at 3 p.m. Eastern.


Solar eclipse play-by-play: Exactly what you’ll see on the big day in the path of totality

The first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in almost 100 years moved across the U.S. at 2,000 mph on Aug. 21. Here are some highlights.
If you’ve made plans to witness the Aug. 21 solar eclipse along the path of totality, congratulations. You are in for a magical, awe-inspiring experience (assuming clouds don’t get in the way).
The total solar eclipse itself will be short-lived, but incredibly action-packed. At its longest in parts of southern Illinois and Kentucky, it will last only two minutes and 40 seconds. In other places along the path of totality, it will be even more fleeting – lasting as little as a minute or less.
The partial eclipse preceding and following the total eclipse, while longer lasting, won’t be nearly as dramatic, but will captivating in its own way, representing key features in the science of the spectacle.
(NASA)
Here’s a short rundown to help you appreciate what you’re about to see.
90 minutes before
The sun will rise as it always does. Until approximately 90 minutes before totality, nothing will seem out of the ordinary. Shortly after 9:15 a.m. Pacific Time, though, those on the West Coast will notice the moon slowly expanding into the top-right edge of the sun. As the moon rapaciously eats away at the solar disk, the bite will grow, taking just over an hour to reach its maximum extent in any given location.
One hour before
Assuming you’re in the path of totality, you’ll be going all the way. However, even through about 70 or 80 percent, you won’t notice any sharp drop-off in ambient light. In fact, the only real way you’ll notice something is up is to look through a solar filter or eclipse glasses.
30 minutes
Shortly thereafter, a gradual decrease in light will occur until totality. As the unhidden portion of the sun shrinks to a fingernail-like crescent, look in the shade of trees, where images of the sun will be projected onto the ground through the tiny slits between leaves. This effect is the same as you would see in a camera obscura.
5 minutes
About five minutes before the eclipse, twilight will begin to form over the western horizon, like a curtain of dusk. As it slowly envelops more land, twilight will begin to fall.
30 seconds
You’ll be able to see the entire shadow of the moon cast on the atmosphere. That’s when you’ll understand the true difference between a 99 percent eclipse and a total solar eclipse.
If you find yourself in a region treated to a mere 99 percent eclipse, you’ll get to see exactly 99 percent of the sun covered. It sounds pretty neat, but it would be like driving 99 percent of the way to your favorite restaurant — sure, you can see it, but you’re not going to experience it.
The difference is literally night and day. It will get 10,000 times darker as the moon covers that last 1 percent of the sun. With a total eclipse, you have to go big or go home.
Capital Weather Gang's Angela Fritz breaks down what will happen when a total solar eclipse crosses the U.S. on Aug. 21.
If you’re shooting for the full splendor of totality, the final 30 seconds before the crucial moment will be filled with several beautiful phases as the last rays of light disappear behind the encroaching moon. During this time, several brief monumental sights can be spotted — but you have to be quick, as they’ll come and go in a flash!
20 seconds
First, the oval-shaped shadow will slide eastward, and overspread the sun. Along either horizon, sunlight will still be seen; since the path of totality is only about 65 miles wide, you may still able to see distant areas basking in full daylight.
Then, the final few rays of sunlight peaking out behind the bottom-left will slowly converge into one large, concentrated speck, resembling a “diamond ring” against the otherwise-black silhouette hollowed out by the moon.
Baily’s beads (fisheye)
15 seconds
A few seconds later, that spot of sunlight will disintegrate into several minuscule beads streaming down to earth through the peaks and valleys of the moon’s undulating surface. Not only do the patterns of these Baily’s beads reveal information about the moon’s jagged topography, but also the light that makes them up becomes collimated. This term is used to describe a beam of light where all the rays are parallel.
When collimated sunlight shines through the chaotic fluid motions of the atmosphere and is subjected to varying air densities, it produces wavelike ripple patterns — akin to those cast on the bottom of a swimming pool. These “shadow bands” last for about 15 seconds on either side of totality, and can be one the more commonly overlooked treats that comes in the eclipse package.
5 seconds
And just like that, you’re plunged into darkness.
Mabel Loomis Todd wrote about this moment in her 1894 book “Total Eclipses of the Sun.” “With frightful velocity,” Todd wrote, “the actual shadow of the moon is often seen approaching, a tangible darkness advancing almost like a wall.”
As all direct sunlight vanishes and your eyes adjust, the sun’s atmosphere — the corona — will emerge. The corona holds the keys to unlocking vital secrets to the sun’s magnetic field. Meanwhile, scores of stars and a handful of planets will dot the sky, including Jupiter below the moon to the left, and Venus above and right. Along the same line will lie Mercury and Mars, both considerably dimmer but still briefly visible.
TOTALITY
Only when the sun is completely obscured is it safe to remove your eclipse glasses; even if only a few pinpricks of sunlight are poking around the sun, harmful ultraviolet rays invisible to us can cause damage to eye tissue.
As totality draws to a close, the process will reverse itself — first Baily’s beads and the shadow bands, then the diamond ring, and eventually the unwinding stages of a partial eclipse. Animals will awaken, roosters will crow, and cattle will return to the fields to graze.
Though the entire event may persist for only a few hours, it’s guaranteed to be an experience that will last a lifetime.
Postscript
Mashable has posted a terrific augmented reality video that offers a play-by-play of the eclipse, which is worth a look: The Weather Channel shows the value of using mixed reality to explain the solar eclipse


This week’s penumbral lunar eclipse pairs with a very bright Jupiter

NASA | Understanding Lunar Eclipses
On Wednesday morning, the full moon will enter the shadow of Earth and darken ever so slightly in a penumbral eclipse. But potentially more interesting, especially for those on the East Coast, will be a very bright Jupiter, which will accompany the moon on Tuesday night.
For this eclipse, the central and western United States will be better positioned to catch the slightly — with an emphasis on slightly — darkened moon. Other parts of the world to see it include Australia, Asia and the Pacific, said noted eclipse expert Fred Espenak. Knowing about the eclipse on Wednesday morning may be more useful than seeing it — for practical purposes, the shading is so minuscule that it will be nearly indistinct from a regular full moon.
In lieu of the eclipse for those on the East Coast, steep some herbal tea and venture out on Tuesday night to behold the pleasantly plump waxing moon and its planetary companion Jupiter above it in the eastern sky.
Jupiter will be very bright at -2.5 magnitude, and the moon will be extremely bright at -12.4 magnitude. Jupiter reached opposition on March 8 — which means that the planet puts on a vibrant show all night long. Those lunar-planetary travel buddies cross the sky together, like a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby road picture, into the morning’s western heavens.
Jupiter’s Red Spot up close as imaged by NASA’s Cassini mission. (NASA)
Officially speaking, the penumbral lunar eclipse reaches it greatest point on Wednesday at 7:48 a.m. Eastern Time (4:48 a.m. Pacific Time), which is about a half-hour after sunrise in Washington.
Earth produces two kinds of shadows: umbral and penumbral. As the moon slides through the dark part of Earth’s shadow (umbral), the moon turns a copper-like red and that event can be quite pronounced. When the moon moves through the outer shadow — the penumbral shadow — the eclipse features are less pronounced. In this case, it’s the outer, outer shadow.
Eclipses have families, and this one is called lunar eclipse Saros 142, which has been around since 1709. In cosmic terms, this specific eclipse family is quite young, so it is still in ascending node, which means that it will be a few hundred years before this family creates total lunar eclipses. There won’t be a total lunar eclipse in this family for another 200 years, as this is only the 18th out of 73, according to Espenak and NASA. For those keeping score, the last total lunar eclipse in this series will be April 21, 2665 — that’s 800 years after the American Civil War. The entire series ends in 3007.
The next total lunar eclipse of any family will occur on Jan. 31, 2018, in Saros 124.
In September, there will be another penumbral lunar eclipse, but North America — sadly — will be shut out from seeing it.


Why does the moon turn red during a lunar eclipse?

If you plan on rising in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 8 to view the lunar eclipse, here's what you should know ahead of the early morning show in the sky. Early Wednesday morning, just before the sun rises, the full moon will turn red in a total lunar eclipse. But why red? Every month the moon circles Earth in uneventful fashion. However, about twice a year, it passes through the shadow of the Earth — the umbra — which prevents direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the moon. This is the total lunar eclipse. Related: The lunar eclipse over the Washington Monument on February 20, 2008. (Kevin Ambrose) Even though the moon is in the Earth’s shadow, some light does manage to hit the lunar surface during the eclipse, and this is what gives the moon its crimson glow, for the same reason that the sky is blue, and sunsets on Earth appear orange, pink, and red. As light passes through the atmosphere of the Earth, it is scattered in all directions. The molecules in the atmosphere are an excellent size for scattering short wavelength blue light, which makes our sky appear blue when the sun is overhead. But as sunlight passes through long, dense portions of the atmosphere, like it does at sunrise and sunset, longer wavelengths of light, which we see as red, are filtered out the least. (NASA) Just like at sunset, during a lunar eclipse the sun’s rays have a lot of atmosphere to pass through around the edges of the Earth. And in addition to the red-colored scattering, the light is also refracted, or bent, sending the red light straight toward the moon. In fact, if you were standing on the surface of the moon during the eclipse, you would see a halo of red around the Earth as it passed in front of the sun, like a 360-degree sunset. While all lunar eclipses end up being some shade of red, the exact color can vary based on the nature of the particles in our atmosphere. Temperature, humidity and dust can all play a role in the intensity of the moon’s redness, which can vary from orange to deep crimson.

If you plan on rising in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 8 to view the lunar eclipse, here's what you should know ahead of the early morning show in the sky. Every month the moon circles Earth in uneventful fashion. However, about twice a year, it passes through the shadow of the Earth — the umbra — which prevents direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the moon. This is the total lunar eclipse. Related: The lunar eclipse over the Washington Monument on February 20, 2008. (Kevin Ambrose) Even though the moon is in the Earth’s shadow, some light does manage to hit the lunar surface during the eclipse, and this is what gives the moon its crimson glow, for the same reason that the sky is blue, and sunsets on Earth appear orange, pink, and red. As light passes through the atmosphere of the Earth, it is scattered in all directions. The molecules in the atmosphere are an excellent size for scattering short wavelength blue light, which makes our sky appear blue when the sun is overhead. But as sunlight passes through long, dense portions of the atmosphere, like it does at sunrise and sunset, longer wavelengths of light, which we see as red, are filtered out the least. (NASA) Just like at sunset, during a lunar eclipse the sun’s rays have a lot of atmosphere to pass through around the edges of the Earth. And in addition to the red-colored scattering, the light is also refracted, or bent, sending the red light straight toward the moon. In fact, if you were standing on the surface of the moon during the eclipse, you would see a halo of red around the Earth as it passed in front of the sun, like a 360-degree sunset. While all lunar eclipses end up being some shade of red, the exact color can vary based on the nature of the particles in our atmosphere. Temperature, humidity and dust can all play a role in the intensity of the moon’s redness, which can vary from orange to deep crimson.


Are you staying up for the lunar eclipse?

The moon is shown during a brief total eclipse as it skims the Earth's shadow on April 4, 2015. The next full lunar eclipse will occur Sunday. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Get ready for a rare double feature, starring our very own moon. A total lunar eclipse will share the stage with a so-called supermoon Sunday night or early Monday, depending where you are. That combination hasn’t been seen since 1982 and won’t happen again until 2033. When a full or new moon makes its closest approach to Earth, that’s a supermoon. Although still about 220,000 miles away, this full moon will look bigger and brighter than usual. In fact, it will be the closest full moon of the year, about 30,000 miles closer than the average distance. (The moon’s orbit is far from a perfect circle.) NASA planetary scientist Noah Petro is hoping the celestial event will ignite more interest in the moon. He is deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, which has been studying the moon from lunar orbit since 2009. Many stargazers, professional and amateur alike, don’t like the term “supermoon,” noting that the visible difference between a moon and supermoon is slight to all but the most faithful observers. “It’s not like the difference between an ordinary man and Superman,” said Alan MacRobert, a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine. “It really ought to be called a tiny, slightly little bit bigger moon, rather than the supermoon.” The full eclipse of the moon will last more than an hour and be visible, weather permitting, from North and South America, Europe, Africa and western Asia. Showtime on the U.S. East Coast is 10:11 p.m. EDT; that’s when the moon, Earth and sun will be lined up, with Earth’s shadow totally obscuring the moon. In Europe, the action will unfold before dawn Monday. No matter where, the preshow will begin two hours earlier. There won’t be another total lunar eclipse until 2018. Observatories are marking the celestial event with public telescope viewing, although magnifying devices won’t be necessary; the eclipse will be easily visible with the naked eye. Astronomers are urging stargazers to simply look to the east. NASA will provide a live video feed of the entire eclipse — an option in case clouds get in the way of your view.

The moon is shown during a brief total eclipse as it skims the Earth's shadow on April 4, 2015. The next full lunar eclipse will occur Sunday. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Get ready for a rare double feature, starring our very own moon.
A total lunar eclipse will share the stage with a so-called supermoon Sunday night or early Monday, depending where you are. That combination hasn’t been seen since 1982 and won’t happen again until 2033.
When a full or new moon makes its closest approach to Earth, that’s a supermoon. Although still about 220,000 miles away, this full moon will look bigger and brighter than usual. In fact, it will be the closest full moon of the year, about 30,000 miles closer than the average distance. (The moon’s orbit is far from a perfect circle.)
NASA planetary scientist Noah Petro is hoping the celestial event will ignite more interest in the moon. He is deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, which has been studying the moon from lunar orbit since 2009.
“The moon’s a dynamic place,” Petro said last week. “We’re seeing changes on the surface of the moon from LRO. We’re seeing that it’s not this static dead body in the sky . . . it’s this great astronomical object that we have in our back yard, essentially. So people should get out and start looking at it.”
Many stargazers, professional and amateur alike, don’t like the term “supermoon,” noting that the visible difference between a moon and supermoon is slight to all but the most faithful observers.
“It’s not like the difference between an ordinary man and Superman,” said Alan MacRobert, a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine. “It really ought to be called a tiny, slightly little bit bigger moon, rather than the supermoon.”
The full eclipse of the moon will last more than an hour and be visible, weather permitting, from North and South America, Europe, Africa and western Asia. Showtime on the U.S. East Coast is 10:11 p.m. EDT; that’s when the moon, Earth and sun will be lined up, with Earth’s shadow totally obscuring the moon.
In Europe, the action will unfold before dawn Monday. No matter where, the preshow will begin two hours earlier.
There won’t be another total lunar eclipse until 2018.
Observatories are marking the celestial event with public telescope viewing, although magnifying devices won’t be necessary; the eclipse will be easily visible with the naked eye. Astronomers are urging stargazers to simply look to the east.
NASA will provide a live video feed of the entire eclipse — an option in case clouds get in the way of your view.


Moon “takes a bite” out of sun on Thursday in partial solar eclipse

The moon will pass in front of the sun, off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible in most of the United States on Oct. 23. NASA explains where and when the eclipse will be most visible. A partial eclipse will be visible across most of North America on Thursday, weather permitting. In a partial eclipse, when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, light from the sun still reaches our planet. If you didn’t know about it in advance, you may not realize that the eclipse is occurring at all. Unfortunately, the only place in the U.S. that the eclipse will not be visible is far northern New England, where the sun will have set before it starts. But for the rest of the Eastern Seaboard, including the Mid-Atlantic, the eclipse will be visible in the early evening. Sky cover forecast for Thursday at 5 p.m. (NWS) Around New York City, eclipse begins at 5:49 p.m., and maximum eclipse occurs at 6:03 p.m. In Philadelphia, it’s just five minutes later. However, the Thursday evening forecast in the Northeast is cloudy as of Wednesday morning, and there’s nothing worse than a thick cloud deck to ruin a good eclipse. In the Washington, D.C., area, the eclipse starts at 5:52 p.m., and will peak at 6:17 p.m., though the peak will coincide with sunset. At maximum eclipse, Washingtonians will see only about 33 percent partiality and the sun will be very low on the horizon, so you will need a viewing location that is not obscured by hills or trees. The cloud forecast is looking marginal on Thursday evening for D.C. — definitely a borderline case. Check back with us on Thursday morning for an update. Do not look directly at the sun with your naked eye If you weren’t able to acquire special glasses or filters to view the eclipse, an easy, safe way to watch is through a shoe box pinhole camera. If you don’t have a shoe box handy, you can also crosshatch your fingers and “project” the sun’s image on the ground or a wall. Slooh.com An image of the sunspost 2192 on October 21. (Geoff Chester, U.S. Naval Observatory) NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center reported earlier today: “Region 2192 remains a very large spot group with a fairly complex magnetic structure and will continue to be the area of interest for the next several days.” In

The moon will pass in front of the sun, off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible in most of the United States on Oct. 23. NASA explains where and when the eclipse will be most visible.

A partial eclipse will be visible across most of North America on Thursday, weather permitting.
In a partial eclipse, when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, light from the sun still reaches our planet. If you didn’t know about it in advance, you may not realize that the eclipse is occurring at all.
Unfortunately, the only place in the U.S. that the eclipse will not be visible is far northern New England, where the sun will have set before it starts. But for the rest of the Eastern Seaboard, including the Mid-Atlantic, the eclipse will be visible in the early evening.
Sky cover forecast for Thursday at 5 p.m. (NWS)
Around New York City, eclipse begins at 5:49 p.m., and maximum eclipse occurs at 6:03 p.m. In Philadelphia, it’s just five minutes later. However, the Thursday evening forecast in the Northeast is cloudy as of Wednesday morning, and there’s nothing worse than a thick cloud deck to ruin a good eclipse.
In the Washington, D.C., area, the eclipse starts at 5:52 p.m., and will peak at 6:17 p.m., though the peak will coincide with sunset. At maximum eclipse, Washingtonians will see only about 33 percent partiality and the sun will be very low on the horizon, so you will need a viewing location that is not obscured by hills or trees. The cloud forecast is looking marginal on Thursday evening for D.C. — definitely a borderline case. Check back with us on Thursday morning for an update.
Viewing times get earlier, and the eclipse will last longer, as you travel west across the U.S. — the peak in St. Louis will occur at 4:41 p.m., Salt Lake City’s will be at 4:26 p.m., and in San Francisco, maximum eclipse will be at 3:15 p.m. More locations and times are listed by NASA.
Do not look directly at the sun with your naked eye
If you weren’t able to acquire special glasses or filters to view the eclipse, an easy, safe way to watch is through a shoe box pinhole camera. If you don’t have a shoe box handy, you can also crosshatch your fingers and “project” the sun’s image on the ground or a wall.
Slooh.com
The sun has been an exciting place recently, as giant solar flares have erupted on the sun’s surface this week. Geoff Chester, an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory, explains that sunspot group 2192 is the largest such group occurring on the sun now – and it is almost the size of Jupiter.
An image of the sunspost 2192 on October 21. (Geoff Chester, U.S. Naval Observatory)
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center reported earlier today: “Region 2192 remains a very large spot group with a fairly complex magnetic structure and will continue to be the area of interest for the next several days.”
In addition to Wednesday morning’s X-class flare, the sunspot group 2192 produced its seventh M-class flare in the past two days, a very strong M8 flare that happened last night (Oct. 21) at 9:59 p.m.
M-class solar flares are moderate in comparison to X-class flares. Over the next two days, the website spaceweather.com puts the chances of another M-class flare at 65 percent and the chances of an X-class flare at 20 percent.


For some, eclipse day showcases God’s majesty. For others, it means the Rapture is coming.

Everyone in the continental United States will need safety glasses for looking at the sky during the August 21 eclipse. (Mark Margolis / Rainbow Symphony)
It’s easy to understand why many people will view Monday’s solar eclipse as an act of God.
After all, in the middle of the day, the sky will go dark. The temperature will suddenly get several degrees colder. Birds will stop chirping and retreat to their nests. And tens of millions of people who spent the weekend in traffic and are now crammed into a 60-mile-wide path crossing from Oregon to the Carolinas will look at the sky.
The total eclipse that will cross America — an event that last happened 99 years ago — will be an important moment for scientific observers and a massive nationwide spectator event. It will also, for many people of faith, be evidence of God’s majesty — and even, to a few, a harbinger of the coming end of the world.
“I don’t think it’s an accident that God put us human beings here on Earth where we can actually see total solar eclipses. I think God wants us to make these discoveries,” said Hugh Ross, who is both an astronomer and a minister. “I would argue that God on purpose made the universe beautiful, and one of the beauties is a solar eclipse.”
Ross is leading a trip to watch the eclipse for about 80 people interested in finding spirituality in science. They’re preparing Monday to travel down a dirt road into a field in Eastern Oregon, where they will wait for the sun to be blotted out. Across the country, other church groups are preparing to do the same.
A solar eclipse isn’t all that rare. The moon is always revolving around the Earth, while the Earth revolves around the sun. Usually the moon appears slightly higher or lower than the sunlight hits the Earth. But twice a year, it’s right smack in front of it, and the moon blocks out the sun during the daytime, and that’s at least a partial solar eclipse.
When a total eclipse occurs, the shadow falls on just a tiny part of the Earth, about 60 to 100 miles wide, and then moves about a thousand miles over the course of a few hours. Because so much of the Earth is water, this almost always happens over an ocean.
The eclipse will cross America, from Oregon to the Carolinas. (Courtesy of NASA)
The last total solar eclipse visible from the continental United States was in 1979, and it was only over a corner of the Pacific Northwest.
Something like this summer’s event, where so many people on land can see a total solar eclipse, is exceptionally rare — although the United States actually will experience another one, crossing an opposite diagonal swath of the country, in 2024.
The “path of totality” for the 2017 eclipse cuts across the entire country, and every single spot in the continental United States will see an eclipse up to 60 percent.
That means that anyone in the country can step outside and see some darkness. But eclipse-watchers — including Jay M. Pasachoff, a Williams College astronomer who has traveled around the world to witness an astonishing 65 eclipses — say that one truly has to see totality to really grasp the awe-inspiring nature of an eclipse. Even 99 percent, Pasachoff said, is nowhere near as dramatic as the moment it totally goes dark, which will last for up to two minutes and 40 seconds.
“You have to be in totality to do it. Basically the universe gets a million times darker,” Pasachoff said. “It is absolutely necessary to be in the path of totality. It’s a poor second to be off to the side.”
For Ross and other clergy planning to showcase the eclipse as both a scientific and a religious event, that stunning experience of seeing totality is an opportunity for discussing God’s handiwork. When Ross was a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, he would take his fellow scientists on hiking trips in the Sierra Nevada, he said.
“When they would say, ‘Yeah, it’s gorgeous,’ I would say, ‘Why is it so beautiful?’ It would always lead to a discussion about the Christian faith,” he said. For that reason — the opportunity to use natural beauty as a tool for evangelism — this eclipse will be a popular Christian event. “A lot of leaders of churches are going to be encouraging people,” he said, to go see the eclipse.
It’s certainly not just church leaders who have that idea. Visitors from as far as Europe and Asia started booking hotel rooms months ago in sleepy little corners of Wyoming and Idaho where they will be able to see the eclipse.
The population living in that long path of totality, from Oregon to the Carolinas, is about 12 million people, by the count of Angela Speck, co-chair of the American Astronomical Society’s task force on the 2017 eclipse. Speck says another 12 million or many more could easily visit for the eclipse date. Nearly everyone in the continental United States lives within one day’s drive of the eclipse path — so if 4 percent of the country decided they wanted to drive to the right spot that day and see the sun go dark, 12 million would turn to 24 million overnight.
There’s precedent: In 1991, Speck said, so many people tried to enter Mexico to see a total eclipse that the country closed parts of its borders.
In certain religious communities, the talk surrounding the eclipse has to do with a different sort of preparation. Gary Ray isn’t worried about just travel plans and adequate eye protection. He’s focused on the Rapture.
Ray, a writer for the evangelical Christian publication Unsealed, views this eclipse as one of several astronomical signs that the day when Christians will be whisked away from the Earth is fast approaching.
“The Bible says a number of times that there’s going to be signs in the heavens before Jesus Christ returns to Earth. We see this as possibly one of those,” Ray said about the eclipse.
He is even more interested in another astronomical event that will occur 33 days after the eclipse, on Sept. 23, 2017.
The Book of Revelation, which is full of extraordinary imagery, describes a woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head” who gives birth to a boy who will “rule all the nations with an iron scepter” while she is threatened by a red, seven-headed dragon. The woman then grows the wings of an eagle and is swallowed up by the earth.
Ray says that image will be created in the sky on Sept. 23. The constellation Virgo — representing the woman — will be clothed in sunlight, in a position that is over the moon and under nine stars and three planets. The planet Jupiter, which will have been inside Virgo — in her womb, in Ray’s interpretation — will move out of Virgo, as if she is giving birth.
Astronomers don’t see this as a particularly unusual event. But to Ray and others, it could be the sign that the Rapture is ready to happen: “We think it’s God signaling to us that he’s about to make his next move.”
And Ray thinks the two eclipses that are slated to travel across the United States in 2017 and 2024, together marking an X across the nation, could be the starting and ending signs bookmarking a seven-year period of awful tribulations that Revelations says waits in store for nonbelievers who are left behind on Earth when the Rapture occurs.
“That time frame is speculative, 2017 to 2024. But it makes a lot of sense. There are a lot of things that really point us to that,” he said.
Therefore, the eclipse preparation that Ray recommends is a bit different from the scientists’ association’s advice.
“My number one encouragement to people would be to just trust God. More importantly, to trust the right God,” he said, warning that those who do not believe when the day of the Rapture comes will be left behind to face the tribulations. “If people want to be ready, the one thing you can do is accept what He has offered, which is the gift of grace and forgiveness. That’s all we have to do to be ready.”
University of Redlands astronomer Tyler Nordgren, who is advising the National Park Service on handling this eclipse, looked at prior events. Just a partial eclipse, not a total one, set visitor records in 2012 when it crossed through National Park Service sites in the Southwest. For this summer, he told the Park Service, “Imagine the biggest event you’ve ever had, and double it.”
So come Monday, even nonbelievers looking out at the crowds on the eclipse path may find themselves comparing it to an apocalyptic event. For one Eastern Oregon park, Nordgren predicts 25,000 to 50,000 sky-watchers. The park has one toilet.
This story was originally published in March and has been updated.
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Watch the total solar eclipse sweep across Pacific Ocean tonight

Slooh Live Update: Watch the total solar eclipse live via Slooh.com in the video above beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. The moon’s shadow will sweep across the Pacific Ocean from Indonesia to Hawaii this week in the first total solar eclipse in a year. Total solar eclipses occur when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun for a few minutes. The previous total solar eclipse happened on March 20, 2015, over the far North Atlantic Ocean and parts of northern Europe. The next total eclipse will pass squarely over the continental United States on Aug. 21, 2017, and will be visible from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast. From its location, Slooh expects its glorious two-minute portion of totality to occur at 7:37 p.m. Eastern Time. There will be live views from partner observatories in Hawaii during a partial phase of the eclipse.The greatest part of totality lasts for 4 minutes and 9 seconds. Astronomer Paul Cox will guide you through the enchanting stages of the partial eclipse phase, then totality and partiality, again, along with a team from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands. Special guests will include science communicator Lucie Green. Viewers are invited to ask questions on Twitter during the broadcast using the hashtag #SloohEclipse. Total solar eclipses occur when the moon slides perfectly between the Earth and sun for a few minutes. The March 8 eclipse sweeps across the Pacific Ocean from Indonesia to Hawaii beginning around 6 p.m., Eastern Time. All eclipses occur in families, and this eclipse is number 52 in the family “Saros 130,” a series that started on Aug. 20, 1096, and it will last until Oct. 25, 2394. In Saros 130, there are 73 all together, 43 of which are total eclipses. The first umbral eclipse of this family occurred on March 25, 1475, where totality lasted two minutes, according to noted expert Fred Espenak. The most recent Saros 130 eclipse was Feb. 26, 1998, making a path from the Galapagos Islands to the Caribbean. The next one will be March 20, 2034, cutting a path from Nigeria, through India and then onto China. In 2052, the Saros 130 total eclipse path runs through central Mexico and the southeastern United States, according to Espenak. NASA and the San Francisco Exploratorium team up A team of NASA scientists is preparing to capture data on the innermost

Slooh Live
Update: Watch the total solar eclipse live via Slooh.com in the video above beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
The moon’s shadow will sweep across the Pacific Ocean from Indonesia to Hawaii this week in the first total solar eclipse in a year.
Total solar eclipses occur when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun for a few minutes. The previous total solar eclipse happened on March 20, 2015, over the far North Atlantic Ocean and parts of northern Europe. The next total eclipse will pass squarely over the continental United States on Aug. 21, 2017, and will be visible from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast.
The eclipse occurs on Wednesday, Pacific time, but those in the United States (outside Hawaii) will need to gaze online on Tuesday evening. You can watch in the live stream on this page starting at 6 p.m., Eastern Time, thanks to Slooh.com.
From its location, Slooh expects its glorious two-minute portion of totality to occur at 7:37 p.m. Eastern Time. There will be live views from partner observatories in Hawaii during a partial phase of the eclipse.The greatest part of totality lasts for 4 minutes and 9 seconds.
Astronomer Paul Cox will guide you through the enchanting stages of the partial eclipse phase, then totality and partiality, again, along with a team from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands. Special guests will include science communicator Lucie Green. Viewers are invited to ask questions on Twitter during the broadcast using the hashtag #SloohEclipse.
Total solar eclipses occur when the moon slides perfectly between the Earth and sun for a few minutes. The March 8 eclipse sweeps across the Pacific Ocean from Indonesia to Hawaii beginning around 6 p.m., Eastern Time.
All eclipses occur in families, and this eclipse is number 52 in the family “Saros 130,” a series that started on Aug. 20, 1096, and it will last until Oct. 25, 2394.
Solar eclipses in these series occur every 18 years and 11 days, or one Saros cycle. “When two eclipses are separated by a period of one Saros, they share a very similar geometry,” writes NASA. “The two eclipses occur at the same node with the moon at nearly the same distance from Earth and at the same time of year. Thus, the Saros is useful for organizing eclipses into families or series.”
Each Saros begins with partial eclipses at one of the poles, and then produces “several dozen central eclipses” before it ends with partial eclipses at the opposite pole, says NASA.
In Saros 130, there are 73 all together, 43 of which are total eclipses. The first umbral eclipse of this family occurred on March 25, 1475, where totality lasted two minutes, according to noted expert Fred Espenak.
The most recent Saros 130 eclipse was Feb. 26, 1998, making a path from the Galapagos Islands to the Caribbean. The next one will be March 20,  2034, cutting a path from Nigeria, through India and then onto China. In 2052, the Saros 130 total eclipse path runs through central Mexico and the southeastern United States, according to Espenak.
NASA and the San Francisco Exploratorium team up
The San Francisco-based Exploratorium science museum will join NASA scientists to present a live eclipse webcast beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time from the coral isle of Woleai – about 500 miles north of New Guinea and about 400 miles south of Guam – in Micronesia.
Robyn Higdon produced the Exploratorium’s webcast, as she searched for a perfect location and found this nearly invisible, pinpoint island within the eclipse path. This production is made in cooperation with NASA and the National Science Foundation. A Spanish-language version of the webcast is available at the Exploratorium site.
The Exploratorium has beamed eclipses around the world for 18 years, according to its blog, written by science writer Eileen Campbell. The museum’s webcast team hauled telescopes, cameras, microphones, laptops and a satellite dish to bring this phenomenal spectacle to your kitchen table. They hold two rehearsals, test data connections and conduct drift-aligning (telescope-tracking) tests.
A team of NASA scientists is preparing to capture data on the innermost parts of the sun’s volatile core, during a solar eclipse on March 9.
More than just cosmic fun, researchers from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center will be testing their polarization camera, capturing data from the sun’s volatile, super-hot atmosphere — a region that can be observed during total solar eclipses.
Nelson Reginald, one of the NASA scientists, explained that a total solar eclipse provides an opportunity “to see very close to the solar limb.”
You can join the Exploratorium on Twitter and Facebook, and NASA at its @NASASunEarth account on Twitter. Viewers can join this conversation and ask questions on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook using #eclipse2016.
Eye safety during a solar eclipse
During the totality phase of a solar eclipse, you watch the event with your own eyes, for a few seconds or minutes, according to Espenak. But during partial eclipse, annular eclipses or partial phases of total eclipse, protect your eyes. “Do not attempt to observe the partial or annular phases of any eclipse with the naked eye,” Espenak said, “Failure to use appropriate filtration may result in permanent eye damage or blindness.”
Find NASA’s eye safety website
Espenak’s Eclipse web sites: EclipseWise.com, AstroPixels.com and MrEclipse.com — a site dedicated to eclipse photography.


The ‘harvest moon’ rises Friday. And it might be a supermoon. And there’s an eclipse.

September's full moon is known as the "harvest moon." In this video, NASA explains its origins. The “harvest moon” will rise on Friday — the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, which occurs Sept. 22 this year. In Europe, Africa and Asia the full moon will also be a little bit darker, thanks to a penumbral lunar eclipse that begins around 1 p.m. Eastern time. The moon officially becomes full at 3:05 p.m. on Friday. In Washington, the sun sets at 7:14 p.m., and the moon rises at 7:22 p.m. If you need more than a full moon to get you outside with your eyes on the sky, this full moon is also a supermoon. Maybe. It’s kind of a controversy. Astrologer Richard Nolle Go figure. If you need even more of a reason to go sky-gazing, check out the bright Venus (-3.9 magnitude) early in the evening. Look to the west-south; the bright star Spica is under Venus, to the planet’s left. In the same neighborhood, the reddish Mars and the ringed Saturn in the south-southwestern sky. Both are bright, about 25 degrees up from the horizon, around 7:45 p.m. What is a penumbral lunar eclipse? It occurs when the moon appears to scoot through the lightest portion of Earth’s shadow. Earthlings must remember that our own planet casts a shadow into space. The center of the shadow is the umbra, so when the moon passes through the umbra, we get partial and total lunar eclipses. In this case, the moon sashays through the penumbra; it’s a weaker, lighter shadow. Think archery target: umbra is the center, and the penumbra surrounds it.

September's full moon is known as the "harvest moon." In this video, NASA explains its origins.
The “harvest moon” will rise on Friday — the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, which occurs Sept. 22 this year. In Europe, Africa and Asia the full moon will also be a little bit darker, thanks to a penumbral lunar eclipse that begins around 1 p.m. Eastern time.
The moon officially becomes full at 3:05 p.m. on Friday. In Washington, the sun sets at 7:14 p.m., and the moon rises at 7:22 p.m.
If you need more than a full moon to get you outside with your eyes on the sky, this full moon is also a supermoon. Maybe. It’s kind of a controversy.
Astrologer Richard Nolle
Long story short, Nolle has a list of all supermoons, and so does the former NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, but their lists disagree. Espenak’s list includes an extra supermoon in 2016 — this month’s harvest moon. EarthSky has a great explanation on why these lists differ. Strangely enough, Espenak’s list seems to meet Nolle’s original definition more than Nolle’s list does.
Go figure.
If you need even more of a reason to go sky-gazing, check out the bright Venus (-3.9 magnitude) early in the evening. Look to the west-south; the bright star Spica is under Venus, to the planet’s left. In the same neighborhood, the reddish Mars and the ringed Saturn in the south-southwestern sky. Both are bright, about 25 degrees up from the horizon, around 7:45 p.m.
Europe won’t need any more reason to look up at the Friday night sky than the penumbral lunar eclipse. For those in North America, you can still catch all of the shadowy eclipse action on slooh.com, with play-by-play and commentary Friday afternoon.
Officially, the eclipse starts at 12:54 p.m. Eastern time and ends at 4:54 p.m., notes Espenak. The deepest part of the eclipse will be at 2:54 p.m. Eastern Time (6:54 p.m. GMT). This is a deep penumbral eclipse, he said, as it has a strong penumbral eclipse magnitude of 0.9080. It will last about a half-minute shy of four hours.
What is a penumbral lunar eclipse? It occurs when the moon appears to scoot through the lightest portion of Earth’s shadow. Earthlings must remember that our own planet casts a shadow into space. The center of the shadow is the umbra, so when the moon passes through the umbra, we get partial and total lunar eclipses. In this case, the moon sashays through the penumbra; it’s a weaker, lighter shadow. Think archery target: umbra is the center, and the penumbra surrounds it.
As all eclipses belong to a family or series of eclipses, this event belongs to Saros 147 — a fairly young one that started in 1890 — and the series runs through 3134. Friday’s eclipse will be the eighth among 70 events. This is the last penumbral eclipse in the series for about 1,000 years. For the first totally awesome total lunar eclipse in this series, circle June 6, 2449, on your calendar.


When will there be a lunar eclipse visible from DC?

Pass the jelly: How to watch the ‘breakfast’ lunar eclipse Saturday morning

Time-lapse video captures a total lunar eclipse, also known as a "blood moon," which was visible from the U.S. as it dipped into Earth's shadow.
Butter your toast or toss shrimp on the barbie to enjoy early Saturday morning’s short, total lunar eclipse. This astronomy story has a Hollywood ending with a Down Under twist.
For East Coast sky-gazers hoping to find the lunar eclipse, forget about it. With the sun rising and the moon setting here, your best bet is catching the event live online – see one perspective from Los Angeles or another with an Australian view.
In Saturday’s total lunar eclipse, the totality phase lasts less than 5 minutes, according to NASA and the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Totality starts at 4:58 a.m. Pacific time (or 7:58 a.m. Eastern time). The moon turns an orange-red when engulfed completely in Earth’s shadow, as our planet stands between the sun and the moon. The middle of totality occurs at about 5 a.m. Pacific time (8 a.m. Eastern time). Three minutes later, totality finishes and the eclipse enters its second partial phase.
[Everything you need to know about the “blood moon" apocalypse debate]
From the southern slope of Mount Hollywood, about 1,134 feet above sea level, the Griffith Observatory presents the eclipse. Find the Griffith Observatory webcast here starting at 2 a.m. Pacific time (5 a.m. Eastern) when the penumbral phase starts. The umbral, or partial, phase – that is when Earth’s shadow bites chunks from the moon – starts at 3:15 a.m. (6:15 a.m. Eastern).
Timing of Saturday’s total lunar eclipse in Pacific time. (Griffith Observatory)
Have a hearty ‘Breakfast on the Moon’
Over at Slooh.com, they’re calling their webcast “Breakfast on the Moon,” where you will see the eclipse from eastern Australia – and from their feed partners from other locations around the Pacific Rim. The Slooh webcast starts at 3 a.m. Pacific time (6 a.m. Eastern) just before the partial, umbral phase.
Conducting the cosmic play-by-play will be host Eric Edelman and astronomer-journalists Bob Berman and Will Gater. Ask them questions via Twitter while they are live by using the hashtag #Breakfasteclipse.
“Total lunar eclipses, like the one we’re looking forward to … are a slow, ethereal affair and, as usual, [Slooh will] have cameras around the world bringing us live views,” Gater said. “What better way to start the day than tuning in to watch this wonderful event.”
All in the family
Over the centuries, eclipses fall into families of related events that astronomers call “saros.” Tomorrow’s total lunar eclipse is part of Saros 132, a series that started on May 12, 1492 (months before Christopher Columbus set sail) and it will end June 26, 2754.
Saturday’s eclipse is the shortest total eclipse in the series, officially clocked at 4 minutes and 43 seconds, according to NASA. The longest total eclipse in this series – a little over a century from now – will be June 9, 2123, at 1 hour, 46 minutes.
The Fab Four
This total lunar eclipse is the third of four-in-a-row, and that – to astronomers – is known as a “tetrad.” Last year, we enjoyed two lunar eclipses on April 15 and Oct. 8. In addition to tomorrow’s eclipse, our next one: Sept. 28, 2015.
A total lunar eclipse on April 15, 2014, marked the beginning of a remarkable series of eclipses all visible from North America.
Between 1582 and 1908, there were no tetrads, as they are part of a 565-year cycle and they tend to be feast or famine. For this 21st century, we get eight of them. Our previous tetrad occurred in 2003-2004. After this September, the next quartet happens in 2032-2033.
Other eclipse sources:
Eclipse expert Fred Espenek’s EclipseWise
NASA’s Eclipse Web page at Goddard Spaceflight Center


Spring trifecta ends splendid week — solar eclipse, supermoon and equinox

A total solar eclipse. (NASA)
The past few days have been great for sky-watchers as a beautiful aurora sank as far south as the Midwest and Northeast on Tuesday night, the result of a severe geomagnetic storm. And Friday will add even more splendor as three astronomical events coincide on one day: a total solar eclipse, a supermoon and the vernal equinox.
Friday at 6:45 p.m. will mark the vernal equinox and the first day of astronomical spring. At this point, the direct rays of the sun are passing over the equator, perpendicular to Earth. It might not feel like spring with snow still in the forecast for many in the eastern U.S., but it is the first day in the march toward summer as the sun’s direct rays return from their Southern Hemisphere vacation.
[Aurora photos from the U.S. and beyond]
This animation shows from where the partial and total solar eclipse can be seen. The shadow passing over the North Atlantic, Europe and northern Asia is where you’ll be able to see the partial eclipse. The fleeting black spot that passes within that shadow represents the locations where the total eclipse will be visible. (NASA)
But earlier in the day on Friday, a possibly more interesting astronomical event will be occurring — a total solar eclipse. The eclipse, which reaches its greatest point at 4:45 a.m., can be seen in partial form across northwest Africa, most of Europe and northern Asia.
The total eclipse can be seen from points in the North Atlantic, south of Iceland, on the Faroe Islands north of the U.K., and Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago halfway between northern Europe and the North Pole.
To make the day triple-noteworthy, the moon will be a “supermoon,” even though it’s in a new phase and not visible. The moon reaches lunar perigee, its orbit’s closest point to Earth, on Thursday afternoon just before entering new. If the moon were visible, it would appear slightly larger in the sky.
[Severe geomagnetic storm spurs beautiful aurora]
Friday’s solar eclipse won’t be visible in North America, but you can watch it on Slooh.com‘s livestream starting at 4:30 a.m. They’re setting up shop on the Faroe Islands, north of the U.K. and close to the point of greatest eclipse. That means anyone with an Internet connection can watch the eclipse in its full, total glory.
So how often do solar eclipse and vernal equinoxes occur on the same day? Good question! According to EarthSky, the next time this convergence will happen is in 19 years, on March 20, 2034. They’ve also written a thorough explanation of why they don’t necessarily coincide every 19 years in that story — recommended reading for any sky-watching enthusiast.
(NASA)