May 20 Solar Eclipse: Preview

Here are a few screen shots using the time machine features in Sky Safari and Stellarium of the May 20, 2012 Solar Eclipse. You can see the time signatures, I am in the central time zone so I will only be able to see the beginning, but for kicks I did a screen shot from the west coast.

Enjoy!


Current Location

W indicates horizon


Current Location
Green Line indicates Horizon, however will begin at 6:45 so should be partially viewable from my location.


San Diego California, the Horizon is way below the image. Lucky you. Did not use the realistic sky as it whitewashed the image in this one.

Anyhow, I encourage you to show your images of your location.

Also, quite the planetary alignment for that day huh?

The force is strong in this one, quetzalcoatl is pleased.

Just checked out my Stellarium, and it looks like we on the East Coast will only be able to just the very beginning of the eclipse as the sun sets. Damn, I'm never going to be able to see a good one...lucky West Coasters.

Oh well, its better than nothing. At least it should create some interesting lighting, which might allow for some interesting photos, just not of the eclipse.

Ok...I'm not sure, but I think I had Stellarium set for Daylight Savings Time, making what I saw be 5 hours behind UTC (UTC-5). It should be UTC-4...so it looks like we will actually see a good bit here on the East Coast, starting at 6:00 p.m.

reply to post by SubPop79


The obvious best place to view would be at the pyramid in Mexico. While watching the serpent shadow entering the ground. Too bad Stellarium does not have that feature. Might be time for a road trip!

You might be right though, Ill have to look into that.

Thanks for the post! I live in Oregon but we are going to go watch the eclipse in Crescent City, CA. I am very excited as I haven't seen one since I was a kid back in the 60s.

reply to post by Quantazero


No prob, the only one I ever saw was when I was in Elementary school. We punched pinholes in a piece of paper and viewed it that way.

reply to post by thehoneycomb


We did the same, but I still took a look with my eyes. This time we have some mylar and welding glasses to look through. This is my daughters first eclipse and she has been looking forward to seeing it for some time. The only worry now is will it be sunny.

Heres a close up.

Looks like a crescent moon.