Among the petroglyphs at Horsethief Lake is one that has always caused me to wonder. Of course the site is home to the famous Tsagaglalal or She-Who-Watches image. This is not the one I refer to, rather a somewhat smaller and usually overlooked image.
Eclipse Petroglyph at Horsethief LakeTo me this petroglyph is obviously a total solar eclipse.
To my eye the image is clearly that of the solar corona surrounding the black shadow of the Moon against the Sun. The image is all the more striking to me personally… In 1979 I witnessed a total solar eclipse, my first, just a short distance from here, from the bluffs above Maryhill.
With a quiet Sun, no active sunspot regions on the face or limb of the visible disk, one wonders what the solar corona will look like. What will we see when the Moon blots out the Sun and the corona is revealed.
The K-Coronagraph image from the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory from Aug 13, 2017Unlike solar observers of old, we can look at the corona without waiting for an eclipse. We have both spacecraft and ground based telescopes equipped with coronagraphs. With these we can view the corona in real-time everyday!
Just up the hill from me is the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory. I know a couple folks that work there and have toured the facility. MLSO is a fairly modest telescope equipped with some very specialized instruments. This telescope stares at the Sun all day, every day, monitoring our star as part of a worldwide network of solar observatories.
What will the Sun look like when eclipse day arrives on August 21st?
Very quiet!
The Sun as it appeared August 10, 2017 with sunspot AR2670There is only one major sunspot group visible at the moment. The large spot AR2670 has been visible for a couple weeks now, crossing the face of the Sun since the beginning of the month.
I observed this spot several times while training some folks at the observatory to use a solar setup and while testing my eclipse telescope.
AR2670 is now disappearing from sight as it rotates over the limb, maybe it will be back in another couple weeks for a third appearance.
Checking the SOHO image archive and the GONG farside maps shows there is nothing else, no significant solar activity that will appear before the total eclipse in eight days. Nothing hiding on the farside to rotate into sight.
There is a slim chance of something new developing over the next week. However, we are approaching solar minimum, a quiet Sun is to be expected. Indeed, I expect we will have an almost featureless solar disk on eclipse day.
Update 14 Aug 2017: With one week to go a new spot has appeared! I do not see that is has an AR designation yet, but this new spot should be in the middle of the Sun on eclipse day if it lasts for the week. It may not be big or pretty, but it will at least give everyone something to focus cameras on in preparation for the main event.
Update 15 Aug 2017: The new sunspot has been designated AR2671 and has already produced some C class flares. Looks like has the energy to develop a bit more. At least one small sunspot for the eclipse?
As I gazed up at a nearly full Moon this evening I realized that the countdown is quite short now. When that Moon is new again it will pass in front of the Sun to create a total solar eclipse.
The Moon one day short of full.This will be my first total solar eclipse in nearly four decades. Not since 1979 have I witnessed a total eclipse. Over those decades I have seen many partial eclipses, quite a few lunar eclipses, a few transits of Mercury, and one transit of Venus.
I have been anticipating and planning this trip for many years. It was after the transit of Venus in 2012 that I really turned my attention to the next major astro-event. Laying out plans to camp somewhere in Eastern Oregon where the viewing is likely to be excellent.
On August 21 this year a total solar eclipse will sweep cross the mainland United States, something that has not happened since 1979.
The 1999 Total Solar Eclipse, image credit Luc ViatorI have witnessed only one total solar eclipse in my lifetime, the February 1979 eclipse that crossed Oregon and Washington. Our family viewed the eclipse from near Maryhill, Washington, atop one of the high bluffs overlooking the Columbia river. We had a perfect view, a vivid memory that remains with me nearly four decades later. The 2017 event will be similar in some respects, sweeping into North America near the Washington-Oregon border.
Our plan for this eclipse? A little preliminary yet, but starting to shape up. Eastern Oregon should provide a good chance for a clear view in August. Stay in the LaGrande area with family, heading south on eclipse day to a good vantage point near the center-line. Most likely somewhere south of Baker, Oregon. There are a lot of high elevation meadows and mountain roads that should provide a memorable place from which to view this eclipse.
Total lunar eclipse of 28 Aug 2007, photo is a 8sec exposure with a Canon 20Da on a 90mm f/12 APO
The eclipsed Moon south of the planet Mars just a week after opposition, Canon 6D and 105mm f/4 lens
The solar eclipse of March 8th, 2016 taken from Spencer Beach State Park. Celestron C8 with a Canon 6D at cassegrain focus, 2000mm focal length
A total lunar eclipse on the night of August 27-28, 2007 with the Moon deep in the Earth’s inner shadow. A dark eclipse, this exposure shows a number of stars surrounding the Moon
Total lunar eclipse August 28, 2007, photo is a 8sec exposure with a Canon 20Da on a 90mm f/12 APO
A partial solar eclipse from Kawaihae, 9 May 2013
The total lunar eclipse on Apr 14, 2014, Canon 6D on 90mm f/12 APO
The sum of 699 exposures taken through the lunar eclipse of Apr 4, 2015
Just a quick reminder that mercury will transit the face of the Sun tomorrow morning. You can read full details in my earlier post or check out a decent transit calculator. For observer in Hawaii the transit will already be well underway at sunrise, making this a set-the-alarm-early exercise. My telescope and solar filter are already loaded… Are yours?
The 2006 transit of Mercury, photographed with a 90mm telescope and a Canon 20Da
Both of the planets that orbit closer to the Sun, Mercury and Venus, can be seen to cross the face of the Sun if everything lines up just right. The last transit of Venus was in 2012. It has been much longer since a transit of Mercury, that last occurred in 2006.
The 2006 transit of Mercury, photographed with a 90mm telescope and a Canon 20Da
In comparison the the rare transits of Venus, transits of Mercury are fairly common. There are 13 or 14 transits of Mercury each century, meaning there is a transit on average every seven years. On May 9th this year we have another chance to observe a Mercury Transit.
Photographing the 2006 transit of Mercury from TucsonBack in 2006 I took the day off work and photographed the transit from my backyard in Tucson. As a transit is a five hour event the effort to observe the entire thing takes a while.
Mercury is quite small with respect to the Sun. During the transit the planet will be a mere 12-13 arcsec across. Considering the Sun is about 1920 arcsec across, the planet will be a fairly small dot on the face of the Sun.
In some respects a transit is the clearest view of Mercury small telescope users are able to view. Normally observed low on the horizon, the innermost planet never gets far from the Sun. During transit a fairly sharp disk can be seen, far better then the mushy view offered near the horizon at sunset and dawn.
First Contact
11:12 UT
1:12 HST
Second Contact
11:15 UT
1:15 HST
Mid-Transit
14:57 UT
4:57 HST
Third Contact
18:39 UT
8:39 HST
Last Contact
18:42 UT
8:42 HST
2016 May 09 Mercury Transit
Unfortunately for observers in the middle of the Pacific the 2016 transit will begin well before dawn. It is only the last hour or so of transit that will be easily visible as the morning Sun rises into the sky. Viewers in eastern North America and Europe will have a better vantage point for this transit.
Please exercise caution when viewing the Sun! Use appropriate eye protection or indirect observing techniques to project an image of the Sun. The link at the start of this paragraph leads to a great discussion on viewing the Sun safely. As always the single best source on the web (or anywhere) for eclipse and transit information is Fred Espenak’s eclipse website at NASA. Stop by whenever you have a question on upcoming events as well as viewing and photography tips.
The next Mercury transit will occur November 11, 2019. This next transit also favors Europe as mid transit occurs at 15:20UT. For the next Venus transit? You are out of luck as it occurs in 2117, over a century away.
The seeing was terrible, but at least we could see the Sun while much of the island was overcast and raining. I had hoped to set up in the parking lot for Puʻukohala Heiau but arrived a few minutes after they closed the gate. Instead I set up just below at Spencer Beach park.
Of course the telescope drew a crowd of folks who wanted a look. No matter, an eclipse is a slow motion affair with plenty of time to share the eyepiece. I showed my guests how to take photos with their cell phones at the eyepiece, so everyone got a photo or three of the event.
The solar eclipse of March 8th, 2016 taken from Spencer Beach State Park. Celestron C8 with a Canon 6D at cassegrain focus, 2000mm focal length
A partial solar eclipse from Kawaihae, 9 May 2013Just a reminder that later today there will be a solar eclipse. This is a total with the path of totality passing north of the main Hawaiian Islands near Midway. For the Big Island this will be a deep partial, about 55%.
