Things To Come

I know 2019 might seem like a long time away still, but it's not too early to plan for two major astronomical events which will be visible in their entirety from Maryland.

Total Lunar Eclipse

All the world's sunsets seen at once,

as reflected by the Moon

First: A Total Lunar Eclipse beginning at 9:36 PM on Sunday, January 20th, and ending at 2:48 AM on Monday morning. For once, we'll be able to see the entire thing - from the moment the Moon enters the Earth's penumbral shadow (9:36 PM) to when totality begins (11:41 PM) to when totality ends (12:43 AM) to the last hurrah (2:48 AM).

So there's a good reason to brave the cold of a mid-winter's night!

A Transit of Mercury

Second: A Transit of Mercury. Maybe not as rare or dramatic as 2012's Transit of Venus, but since I won't be around for the next one of those (on December 10th, 2117), I'll take what I can get! Mercury will make first contact with the Sun at 7:36 AM (exactly 50 minutes after sunrise) on November 11th, 2019 and be fully between us and the Sun approximately one minute later. The elusive planet will have left the Sun's disk completely by 1:04 PM, after a transit time of 5 hours 25 minutes. So once again, weather permitting, we'll be able to see the entire event - and this time in daylight!

Now just about everyone in HAL knows that I am a huge fan of Mercury, and that we're lucky to get just a passing glimpse of him in the evening twilight before the planet slips below the horizon. But here we'll get to observe him for a full five and one half hours! How cool is that?