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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. Present and future events can be found here.
The next major events.......(click the event for later dates).
For viewing tips, visit the
Viewing Tips
page.
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 the Earth 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.
Specific information about specific times of solar eclipses
can be found here for the years
2001 to 2010 and
2011 to 2020.
| Date |
Universal Time |
Type |
| March 19, 2007 |
2:32 AM |
Partial |
| September 11, 2007 |
12:31 PM |
Partial |
| February 7, 2008 |
3:55 AM |
Annular |
| August 1, 2008 |
10:21 AM |
Total |
| January 26, 2009 |
7:58 AM |
Annular |
| July 22, 2009 |
2:35 AM |
Total |
| January 15, 2010 |
7:06 AM |
Annular |
| July 11, 2020 |
7:33 PM |
Total |
| January 4, 2011 |
8:50AM |
Partial |
| June 1, 2011 |
9:16 PM |
Partial |
| July 1, 2011 |
8:38 AM |
Partial |
| November 25, 2011 |
6:20 AM |
Partial |
| May 20, 2012 |
11:53 PM |
Annular |
| November 13, 2012 |
10:12 PM |
Total |
| May 10, 2013 |
12:25 AM |
Annular |
| November 3, 2013 |
12:46 PM |
Annular |
| April 29, 2014 |
6:03 AM |
Annular |
| October 23, 2014 |
9:44 PM |
Partial |
| March 20, 2015 |
9:45 AM |
Total |
| September 13, 2015 |
6:54 AM |
Partial |
| March 9, 2016 |
1:57 AM |
Total |
| September 1, 2016 |
9:07 AM |
Annular |
| February 26, 2017 |
2:53 PM |
Annular |
| August 21, 2017 |
6:25 PM |
Total |
| February 15, 2018 |
8:51 PM |
Partial |
| July 13, 2018 |
3:01 AM |
Partial |
| August 11, 2018 |
9:46 AM |
Partial |
| January 6, 2019 |
1:41 AM |
Partial |
| July 2, 2019 |
7:23 PM |
Total |
| December 26, 2019 |
5:17 AM |
Annular |
| June 21, 2020 |
6:40 AM |
Annular |
| December 14, 2020 |
4:13 PM |
Total |
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.
Some tips about photographing a lunar eclipse can be found
here.
| Date |
Time |
Type |
| March 3, 2007 |
11:21 PM |
Total |
| August 28, 2007 |
10:37 AM |
Total |
| February 21, 2008 |
3:26 AM |
Total |
| August 16, 2008 |
9:10 PM |
Umbral |
| February 9, 2009 |
2:38 PM |
Partial |
| July 7, 2009 |
9:38 AM |
Partial |
| August 6, 2009 |
12:39 AM |
Partial |
| Dec 31, 2009 |
7:32 PM |
Umbral |
| June 26, 2010 |
11:38 AM |
Umbral |
| December 21, 2010 |
8:17 AM |
Total |
| June 15, 2011 |
8:12 PM |
Total |
| December 10, 2011 |
2:32 PM |
Total |
| August 4, 2012 |
11:03 AM |
Umbral |
| November 28, 2012 |
2:33 PM |
Partial |
| April 25, 2013 |
8:07 PM |
Umbral |
| May 25, 2013 |
4:10 AM |
Partial |
| October 18, 2013 |
11:50 PM |
Partial |
| April 15, 2014 |
7:45 AM |
Total |
| October 8, 2014 |
10:54 AM |
Total |
| April 4, 2015 |
12:00 PM |
Total |
| September 28, 2015 |
2:47 AM |
Total |
| March 23, 2016 |
11:47 AM |
Partial |
| September 16, 2016 |
6:54 PM |
Partial |
| February 11, 2017 |
12:44 AM |
Partial |
| August 7, 2017 |
6:20 PM |
Umbral |
| January 31, 2018 |
1:30 PM |
Total |
| July 27, 2018 |
8:22 PM |
Total |
| January 21, 2019 |
5:12 AM |
Total |
| July 16, 2019 |
9:31 PM |
Umbral |
| January 10, 2020 |
7:10 PM |
Partial |
| June 5, 2020 |
7:25 PM |
Partial |
| July 5, 2020 |
4:30 AM |
Partial |
| November 30, 2020 |
9:43 AM |
Partial |
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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.
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.
| Date |
Universal Time |
Planet |
| November 8, 2006 |
7:19 PM |
Mercury |
| June 6, 2012 |
1:36 AM |
Venus |
| May 9, 2016 |
3:00 PM |
Mercury |
| November 11, 2019 |
3:22 PM |
Mercury |
| November 13, 2032 |
8:58 AM |
Mercury |
Back to Top
| Shower Name |
Rate per Hour |
Date / Peak Date |
| Quantrantids |
40-60 |
Dec. 8 - Jan. 7/ Jan. 3 |
| Lyrids |
10-15 |
April 16 - 25/ 22 |
| Eta Aquarids |
20-50 |
Apr. 21 - May 12/ May 5-6 |
| S. Delta Aquarids |
20 |
Jul. 14 - Aug. 18/ Jul. 28-29 |
| Perseids |
50-75 |
Jul. 23 - Aug. 22/ Aug. 12 |
| Orionids |
20-25 |
October 15-29/21-22 |
| S. Taurids |
10-15 |
Sep. 17 - Nov. 27/ Oct. 30 - Nov. 7 |
| Leonids |
15-80+ |
November 14-20/17-18 |
| Geminids |
50-85 |
December 6-19/13-14 |
| Ursids |
15 |
December 17-25/15 |
Of all of the meteor showers above, we know the source of
the debris cloud of most of them, shown in the chart below:
| Shower Name |
Source of debris |
| Lyrids |
Comet Thatcher 18611 |
| Eta Aquarids |
Comet Halley |
| Perseids |
Comet Swift-Tuttle |
| Orionids |
Comet Halley |
| S. Taurids |
Comet Encke |
| Leonids |
Comet Temple-Tuttle |
| Geninids |
Asteroid #3200 Phaeton |
| Ursids |
Comet Tuttle |
Back to Top
Interesting
Conjunctions
| Date |
Details |
| June 25, 2005 |
Mercury,
Venus and
Saturn within
1.5° |
| June 17, 2006 |
Mars and
Saturn within 0.5°
and 1° from Beehive
Cluster in evening sky |
| May 19, 2007 |
Crescent
Moon and
Venus
1°
apart in evening sky |
| June 30, 2007 |
Venus and
Saturn 0.8°
apart in evening sky |
| February 1, 2008 |
Venus and
Jupiter 0.6°
apart in morning sky |
| February 4, 2008 |
Venus and
Jupiter 0.6°
apart near a crescent
Moon
in morning sky |
| December 1, 2008 |
Crescent
Moon,
Jupiter and
Venus in
3° triangle in the evening sky |
| February 27, 2009 |
Crescent
Moon and
Venus
2°
apart in evening sky |
| October 13, 2009 |
Venus and
Saturn 0.5°
apart with
Mercury
nearby in morning sky |
| August 5, 2010 |
Venus,
Mars and
Saturn form a 5°
triangle in evening sky |
| May 11, 2011 |
Mercury,
Venus and
Jupiter form a 2°
long vertical line with
Mars
nearby in the morning sky - look east. |
| March 13, 2012 |
Venus and
Jupiter
3°
apart in evening sky |
| November 27, 2012 |
Venus and
Saturn within 1°
in the morning sky |
| May 28, 2013 |
Venus and
Jupiter within 1°
with
Mercury
nearby in the evening sky |
| August 18, 2014 |
Venus and
Jupiter 0.25°
apart and 1° from Beehive Cluster in morning sky |
| February 22, 2015 |
Venus and
Mars 0.5°
apart in evening sky |
| July 1, 2015 |
Venus and
Jupiter 0.5°
apart in evening sky |
| October 26, 2015 |
Venus and
Jupiter
1°
apart in morning sky |
| October 28, 2015 |
Venus,
Mars and
Jupiter form 1°
triangle in morning sky |
| December 7, 2015 |
Crescent
Moon and
Venus
2°
apart in morning star |
Back to Top |
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