Total Eclipse of the Sun as seen from Tennessee on April 8, 2024
After nearly a year and a half delay (family matters), I am trying to resume work on animated graphics for the 2024 solar eclipse. Last week, I had Alabama completed and up, and now, I have Tennessee posted. Lake County is the only county in Tennessee that will get to see totality for a brief one minute and 34 seconds. The other 94 counties that make up the Volunteer state will only get to see a partial solar eclipse. The next total eclipse of the Sun for Tennessee won’t be until the year 2157! I will next be working on an animated map of the state of Maine (which I should have up in the next few days). (If your computer can handle it, increase the size of this map to full screen!)
Retrograde Motion of Mars 2020
The video, above, shows why Mars “goes retrograde.” Basically, Earth is lapping Mars in a two-way race around the sun. Our planet is faster, so Mars seems to go backwards during the weeks of closest approach.
Music by Bernard Herrmann from the film Fahrenheit 451
Comet NEOWISE July 14th, 2020 – morning
25 second exposure with a Canon camera with a 50 mm lens. The comet is fading. I would estimate it to be 2.5 to 3 in apparent magnitude to the naked-eye! The comet will get higher in the evening sky as the days progress towards the northwest, but at the same time, day-by-day, it is fading!
Venus fell back into the morning sky soon after reaching inferior conjunction on June 3rd, 2020. This animation covers from June 10th, 2020, until February 5th, 2021. Venus will be at greatest elongation west on August 13th. As you can see, Venus will be at its highest or farthest from the horizon in the first week of September. Afterward, it will slowly go back down until it disappears during the first week in February. Venus will reach superior conjunction on March 25th, 2021.
Oh yes, don’t forget to watch Mercury loop twice above the horizon this year. Also, I left the Moon out of the video. Moves by too quickly in this scene!