Solar eclipse "warm-up act" will occur on Saturday

While the "Great American Eclipse" will be the big story as far as solar events go in the next several months, this weekend's annular eclipse for part of the country, and partial for the rest of us, will be a very nice warm-up act! 

Occurring over a three-hour window from late morning through early afternoon on Saturday, October 14, over 60% of the sun's disk will be obscured by the moon at noon as it passes directly between the sun and Earth. 

The April 2024 Great American Eclipse will be a total eclipse, in which the entirety of the sun will be obscured by the moon. However, this Saturday's eclipse will be an "annular" eclipse for those in the western United States. Annular refers to the fact that, while the moon passes directly in front of the sun like in a total eclipse, it is too small (due to its distance from our perspective) to completely block the sun, thus a "ring of fire" is visible around the outside of the moon. 

A "ring of fire" produced by an annular eclipse. Photo by Ferdinandh Cabrera/AFP via Getty Images)

For those who are outside the path of totality, a partial eclipse will be visible with a "Pac-Man shaped" sun as the moon passes in front of it. The last annular eclipse visible in the continental U.S. was in 2012, but the next one won't be until 2048! (Of course, we will have a total eclipse crossing the U.S. just 6 months from now!)

For the Memphis metro, the eclipse will start about 10:30am, peak at maximum obscuration of 61% at noon, and finish at 1:35pm. Because it is not a total eclipse, viewers absolutely should NOT look directly at the sun to observe the eclipse, unless they are wearing appropriately-rated eye protection such as rated eclipse glasses. You can also use an indirect method like a pinhole camera that can be made at home with the kids! Here is a great article covering several ways to enjoy the eclipse safely.

The forecast looks good for Saturday with a cold front arriving Friday night that should clear out by Saturday morning, leaving mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies and a northwest breeze with temps in the mid to upper 60s during the eclipse. 

More information on the annular eclipse can be found at EarthSky.org, GreatAmericanEclipse.com and NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

Erik Proseus
MWN Meteorologist

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Partial solar eclipse visible to Mid-Southerners on Thursday

In an event that won't be seen again for nearly 3 years, a partial solar eclipse will grace the sky over North America on Thursday, October 23. Partial solar eclipses happen when a new moon comes between the sun and the Earth, but they don't align in a perfectly straight line. Therefore, the moon only partially covers the sun's disc. 

Diagram of how a solar eclipse occurs, as a new moon passes between viewers on Earth and the sun.
Graphic credit: EarthSky.org.

In the Memphis metro, the partial eclipse will begin at 4:52pm Thursday afternoon as a small shadow on the right side of the sun. As the shadow moves across the top of the sun, a maximum eclipse (shown below) will occur at 5:53pm low on the western horizon. The sun will slip below the horizon at 6:14pm, thus ending the viewing opportunity prior to the end of the eclipse.

How the sun will appear at maximum eclipse (5:53pm Thursday) just prior to setting. For an animation of the complete eclipse cycle, see TimeandDate.com.

The next solar eclipse opportunity won't be until August 21, 2017 when a total eclipse takes place. While we look forward to that opportunity, don't miss the chance to see this partial eclipse or you'll have to wait another 3 years to see it again!

As to viewing an eclipse, remember the #1 rule is to NEVER look directly at the sun, eclipsed or otherwise, without protective eyewear! The sun’s UV radiation can burn the retinas in the eyes leading to permanent damage or even blindness. The only way to safely see a solar eclipse is to wear protective eclipse glasses, look through welder's goggles with a rating of 14 or higher, or to project an image of the eclipsed sun using a pinhole camera. Here's info on making a simple camera from Mr Eclipse.com:

One safe way of enjoying the Sun during a partial eclipse--or anytime--is a "pinhole camera," which allows you to view a projected image of the Sun. There are fancy pinhole cameras you can make out of cardboard boxes, but a perfectly adequate (and portable) version can be made out of two thin but stiff pieces of white cardboard. Punch a small clean pinhole in one piece of cardboard and let the sunlight fall through that hole onto the second piece of cardboard, which serves as a screen, held below it. An inverted image of the Sun is formed. To make the image larger, move the screen farther from the pinhole. To make the image brighter, move the screen closer to the pinhole. Do not make the pinhole wide or you will only have a shaft of sunlight rather than an image of the crescent Sun. Remember, this instrument is used with your back to the Sun. The sunlight passes over your shoulder, through the pinhole, and forms an image on the cardboard screen beneath it. Do not look through the pinhole at the Sun.

Be safe and have fun watching the eclipse on Thursday!

Erik Proseus
MWN Meteorologist

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NASA provides ultra-high-definition time-lapse views of 2012 Venus transit

It was a rare event - the Venus transit that occurred during the evening hours on June 4, 2012 - something none of you reading this will ever see again in your lifetime.  If you missed it, NASA gives you a second chance.  If you watched it, I can assure you that you didn't see it like this!



From the YouTube description of this video:

Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun's atmosphere, magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate. SDO provides images with resolution 8 times better than high-definition television and returns more than a terabyte of data each day.

On June 5 2012, SDO collected images of the rarest predictable solar event--the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.

The videos and images displayed here are constructed from several wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light and a portion of the visible spectrum. The red colored sun is the 304 angstrom ultraviolet, the golden colored sun is 171 angstrom, the magenta sun is 1700 angstrom, and the orange sun is filtered visible light. 304 and 171 show the atmosphere of the sun, which does not appear in the visible part of the spectrum.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010900/a010996/index.html


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Views of the annular solar eclipse - May 20, 2012

Last night (Sunday, May 20), many parts of the U.S. were treated to an annular solar eclipse, or part of it (known as a partial eclipse).  We pulled a few images of the eclipse from a variety of sources and placed them below. 

Slooh (events.slooh.com) maintained a live video feed throughout the event from a couple of western U.S. locations where the annular eclipse would be best viewed. A couple of screenshots of their feeds are shown below.

The above was taken as Slooh's site in California experienced the "ring of fire," in which a ring of the sun is apparent around the moon.

The second shot was taken in New Mexico.  Note the orange ring of the sun surrounding the black disk that is the moon.

Locally, a partial eclipse was photographed from the Mississippi River bluffs. Photo credit: Austen Onek

The TX panhandle was the prime viewing spot for the eclipse as the sun set during the annular phase. Photo credit: Greg Jackson (NWS Midland, TX).

The next major solar eclipse event is a total eclipse which will occur across a wide swath of the U.S. in 2017.  Expect a lot of press and hoopla leading up to this event as a total eclipse visible in the U.S. is rare!  For more on this particular event, check out our recent blog post leading up to the eclipse.

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For weather information for Memphis and the Mid-South, where and when you need it, visit MemphisWeather.net on the web, m.memphisweather.net on your mobile phone, download our iPhone or Android apps, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.

Solar eclipse to be viewable by Mid-Southerners on Sunday

On Sunday, May 20, an annular eclipse of the Sun will be visible within a narrow corridor along Earth's northern Hemisphere, beginning in eastern Asia, crossing the North Pacific Ocean, and ending in the western United States.  However, much of North America, including the Memphis metro, will be able to view a partial solar eclipse just before, and as, the sun sets for the evening.  This eclipse marks the first annular eclipse visible in North America since May 1994.  The last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous 48 states was in 1979.  The next is a highly anticipated event in 2017.

Red area indicates where the annular eclipse can be viewed.  Credit: NASA GSFC

The specific for Memphis:
 - Partial eclipse begins: 7:28pm
 - Partial eclipse ends: 8:00pm (sunset)
 - Degree of obscuration: 33% (1/3 of the sun will be eclipsed)

A picture of an annular solar eclipse taken from space by the joint Japanese-American Hinode satellite on Jan. 4, 2011.
Photo credit: Hinode/XRT.

A solar eclipse occurs when the new moon passes between Earth and the sun, blocking out a portion of the sun from viewing.  A total eclipse is when the sun is completely blocked by the moon. An annular eclipse, like this one, is when the moon passes directly in front of the Sun, but does not completely obscure it, creating a "ring of fire."  The annular eclipse will only be viewable along a relatively narrow path described above. Those around that path will be treated to a partial eclipse, in which a "bite" appears to be taken out of the sun.

Partial solar eclipse

We remind you that you should NEVER look directly at the sun, even during an eclipse, as you risk serious and permanent eye damage or blindness.  There are several suggestions for viewing an eclipse on the Exploratorium website.  These include putting a pinhole in one piece of cardboard, then projecting the light through the pinhole onto another sheet of white cardboard.  Or, you can also try looking at the ground underneath a leafy tree.  The  gaps between the leaves will shine on the ground in the shape of the sun!

Remember that the event will occur just before sunset, so viewing may be difficult.  Just remember NOT to look directly at the sun!  There will be plenty of cool pictures on the internet late Sunday evening and Monday for you to check out!  In the meantime, we'll cross our fingers that sky conditions will permit optimal viewing.  Overcast conditions are currently not expected, though a partly cloudy sky is.

A video by NASA explains this impressive event in more detail.
Complete detail on this eclipse, also by NASA, can be found here.
Here is a map of the western USA showing where the annular eclipse will be seen completely.

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For weather information for Memphis and the Mid-South, where and when you need it, visit MemphisWeather.net on the web, m.memphisweather.net on your mobile phone, download our iPhone or Android apps, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.