The Eclipses of 2014

Even though it is February already, the year has only just begun. With that, comes the prime opportunity to mark our calendars for some pretty cool (predictable) events; eclipses.

Side note: There are some pretty cool unpredicted events that happen such as a Coronal Mass Ejection or solar flares that is directed toward Earth to cause the aurora in places like the northern states of the contiguous US. For those, you just have to watch and wait. Check out the Solar Dynamics Observatory webpage from time-to-time to check out how our sun is doing (and they have some cool images and videos too).

Eclipses: There will be 4 eclipses this year.

April 15th: Total Lunar Eclipse

This eclipse will be spectacular if you live within the dark shaded region of the image on the left (Europe, Asia and part of Africa) The level of shade indicates regions of visibility. The darkest areas are where you will see the total eclipse. The least shaded is where you will see no eclipse. Every where in between, you will see partial eclipses.

The times are given in Universal Time (UT). For example, Denver is in MDT which is -6 hours from UT during these eclipses. If we were able to see this eclipse, it would peak at 07:45:40 UT - 6 = 01:45:40 MST, which is at almost 2 in the morning.

April 29th: Annular Solar Eclipse

f you live in Australia or happen to be down in Antarctica during this event, you will see a rare one as this eclipse is classified as a non-central annular eclipse. According to Espenak and Messus (2006), out of the 3,956 annular eclipses occurring during the 5,000-year period (-2000 to +3000), only 68 of them or 1.7% are non-central.

This eclipse starts at 05:57:35 UT, peaks at 06:03:25 UT, and ends at 06:09:36 UT.




October 8th: Total Lunar Eclipse

Africa will take center stage for this beautiful eclipse. North America will be able to partially see this one, unlike the last one in April. In Denver, it will occur at 04:54:36. Better have some caffeine ready.





October 23rd: Partial Solar Eclipse

This eclipse will likely draw the most attention as it will be widely visible from the US (including Denver!). The eclipse begins at 19:37:33 UT, peaks at 21:44:21 UT, and ends at 23:51:40 UT. For the eastern half of the US, this will be a sunset eclipse. Get your cameras ready!

While this eclipse is only a partial solar eclipse, just remember always: NEVER STARE DIRECTLY AT THE SUN! No one needs to go blind. Make sure to wear "eclipse glasses" or use the pinhole projection technique.

Local observatories will likely have an open-to-the-public viewing events, so check your local news!


Information about these eclipses was gathered from the NASA Eclipse WebSite. Go check it out for further information about these eclipses and other cool space news!