This page is dedicated to events that will occur in the future that are worth noting - such as eclipses, transits, meteor showers, planet events and so on.

 

For a complete list of events for the year 2005, click here.

 

As with most astronomical data charts, times are in Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). To translate your time, visit the GMT website.

 

The U.S. Naval Observatory created a wonderful map that can assist in translating GMT. You can see it here (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

 

I am in the process of designing an interactive map to provide most of this data, but in the meantime, there are some excellent resources available online.

 

For an almanac of events and visible stars, Sky and Telescope has a great tool that is customizable to your location.

 

Not sure if you will have a cloudy night? The Clear Sky Clock can be pretty accurate. And it is specific to (a limited number) your location.

 

A Solar Eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between us and the Sun. The results can be quite dramatic, but the event is pretty rare in that it only occurs in small parts of the world at specific times. The three types of solar eclipse are: total, partial, and annular.

 

A great resource for tips in photographing a solar eclipse can be found here.

 

Specific information about specific times of solar eclipses can be found here for the years 2001 to 2010 and 2011 to 2020.

 

Solar Eclipse - For a Map, click here.

 

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Lunar Eclipse

 

A Lunar Eclipse occurs as much as a Solar Eclipse, but for some reason does not receive as much excitement as a solar eclipse. None-the-less a lunar eclipse can be equally impressive. There are three types of a lunar eclipse: total, partial, and umbral.

 

For information specific to location, a website for eclipses in 2001 to 2010 and 2011 to 2020 are available.

 

Some tips about photographing a lunar eclipse can be found here.

 

 

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There are some wonderful resources available for information on the solar system. JPL has a dedicated section called Solar System Dynamics that has just about any kind of data you could ever want.

 

Want to find the best time to view the Great Red Spot on Jupiter? Sky and Telescope has a dedicated page.

 

One of the most dramatic events, and the most rare, is the transit of a planet. A transit is when a planet crosses the face of the Sun, and since we are the third planet, only Mercury and Venus can be observed by us to transit the Sun. Only one transit of Venus will occur in our lifetime, and that is on June 6, 2012. An excellent resource for Venus transit information can be found at the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. More transit data of Mercury and Venus are available online.

 

Also of interest is a section on interesting conjunctions - great photo opportunities for photographers to capture multiple objects in a narrow field of view.

 

 

Transit Events