Astronomical Lightning Round

Hello and welcome back! There certainly has not been a shortage of weather headlines in recent weeks. Tornadoes, tropical storms, severe thunderstorms, wildfires have dominated the news and even prompted the word "biblical" to pop up. (I think that's a bit over the top, but I guess that's how you grab attention...anyway) While a lot has been going on here on Earth, space has been putting on shows of its own in rapid-fire succession! And we're not done yet! We've seen two eclipses in the last 3 weeks, and we're in for one more event, and this one is once in a lifetime! We'll get to that in a little bit...

Every year here on Earth, we are treated to four eclipse events, 2 lunar and 2 solar. Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon moves through Earth's shadow as it orbits the planet, while a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun. As you'd probably expect, lunar eclipses are much easier to view than solar eclipses since you need special eyewear to be able to look at the Sun. In fact, the Sun's light can be even more damaging to your eyes during a total solar eclipse, but that's a topic for another day!

It all started back on the evening of May 20 with the year's first eclipse event. Unfortunately due to the way things just happened to play out, we missed this event here in the eastern U.S., but folks in the west were treated to what is called an annular solar eclipse. So called because the Moon does not completely block out the Sun, but rather it leaves a ring of fire around its edges, as long as you are in the right location on Earth to see it. Luck will come our way eventually, but here's a little sampling of what we missed.

Jacob Thumberger in Gail, TX was in exactly the right place to catch the height of the eclipse.

Folks in Minnesota got lucky right as the sun was setting and caught at least a partial solar eclipse!

And here's a great timelapse of photos taken in California!

I would love to tell you that we'll get our chance during this year's second solar eclipse, but we will miss out on that one too. Only people in the southern hemisphere will be able to witness it. We may have to wait until sometime in 2013!

So that was all well and good. We missed that solar eclipse solely because it didn't begin until after the Sun had already set here in the east. Unfortunately, we were robbed again just this morning (June 4)! June's full moon, known as the "strawberry moon," came along with the first lunar eclipse of the year. This was only a partial eclipse with only 38% of the Moon falling under Earth's shadow at its climax. By astronomical conditions, we would have been able to see it right before sunrise here in the eastern U.S., but the weather here withing our own atmosphere had other plans. With our stubborn weekend storm system still sitting and spinning over the region, overcast skies never even offered us a chance to sneak a peek at the moon. Areas that were clear enough to see it though, caught quite a show!

Dennis Mammana took this shot from Borrego Springs, California at the height of the eclipse. Earth's shadow only made a glancing blow, but made for a great snapshot!

OK, so we're 0 for 2 thus far, but we've got one more celestial event coming up on the evening of June 5 that in this case will literally be once in a lifetime! This time around, it doesn't even involve our Moon, but rather the planet Venus! Shortly before sunset tomorrow, Venus will move across the face of the Sun in what is known as a transit event. Since Venus is obviously much farther away than our moon, it will not block out the Sun, but rather appear as a visible dark dot moving across the solar disk. These transits are rare events that occur in pairs, over 100 years apart. June 5th's transit will be the second in the latest pair, following the last one in 2004. Tomorrow's event is being called once in a lifetime since the next one won't occur until the year 2117! 

Here in our area, the transit will begin shortly after 6:00 PM and will take a little over 7 hours. That in mind, we will have just about 2 1/2 hours for viewing in our area, assuming the weather cooperates. Now, like anything involving the Sun, you don't want to look directly at it without protective gear. A popular item would be to use #14 welder's glass, if you can get your hands on some. But in any event, use caution when trying to view this event. (Let's hope the weather breaks just long enough to give us a chance. Skies are expected to be mostly cloudy here in New York and New England.)

This shot was taken a few weeks ago as Venus began its trip toward the upcoming transit. When seen through a telescope, Venus goes through phases just like our Moon.

And a shot of the 2004 Venus transit taken by the Dutch Open Telescope in the Canary Islands.

So happy hunting tomorrow evening! Keep your fingers crossed for clearer skies! 

Thanks for reading!

Until next time...