ASTRO ALERT ASTRO ALERT ASTRO ALERT
THURSDAY, OCT. 23rd, 2014
PARTIAL SOLAR
ECLIPSE VISIBLE
A partial solar eclipse occurs
tomorrow, Thursday Oct. 23rd, across North America. The eclipse is
visible from the mid-Atlantic region south into Florida and Mexico, west out
into the Pacific Ocean, north into Canada. For details about visibility in your
area check out this
link.
For the PHILADELPHIA AREA, the eclipse begins at 5:51 pm,
reaching its maximum of less than 20% coverage at 6:08 pm. Unfortunately,
sunset occurs at 6:10 pm. We will not see very much because only a small
portion of the sun will be covered by the moon. No effects typically associated
with eclipses will occur because the eclipse is so minimal.
Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the sun
and the earth and the moon’s shadow fall onto the earth. In this case, the moon
will not completely block the sun’s light as seen from the earth, so only a
portion of the sun will appear covered by the moon.
For us, the eclipse begins 19 minutes before sunset, when
the sun is very low in the western sky. Maximum eclipse occurs just two minutes
before sunset. Viewers in this region will need a completely unobstructed view
of the western horizon and clear skies in the west. The sun will set as the
eclipse is in progress.
Viewers further west will see more of the eclipse before
sunset occurs for them. No one on the planet will see a total solar eclipse
because the Sun-Moon-Earth positioning isn’t correct for that.
To safely view the eclipse you’ll need either a pinhole
camera-like device like this
or this
one , something with lots of holes like this or a
piece of pegboard. You can also view the event directly IF you have the correct
filter material like these
kids do.
Weather is the most important factor: if the sky isn’t
clear, we won’t have any opportunity to see anything. In case of cloudy
weather, the eclipse will be broadcast live here.
There are two solar eclipses next year, neither visible from
our area. The next visible for us is August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse
visible for the Carolinas!
- Compiled by D.H. Pitts, Chief Astronomer, Franklin
Institute Science Museum, dpitts@fi.edu, 215 448
1234, 10/22/14.
