DETROIT – Let’s talk about the Solar Eclipse coming this weekend -- You’ve probably seen it all over social media, and also talking about the big eclipse (which Detroit will be very close to the “Path of Totality” in 2024.)
For this weekend, this Is what we will call a partial eclipse. A partial solar eclipse happens when the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth, but the Moon only partially covers the Sun’s disk.
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During a partial solar eclipse like the one we are looking at on Saturday, the Sun and Earth don’t align in a perfectly straight line, and the Moon casts only the outer part of its shadow, the penumbra, on the Earth. From our perspective, this looks like the Moon has taken a “bite” out of the Sun.
Sometimes, the Moon covers only a little part of the Sun’s disk. Other times, a partial eclipse looks almost like a total eclipse. The size of the eclipsed area is referred to as the eclipse magnitude.
During a partial solar eclipse, there are three different stages we will see:
- Partial solar eclipse begins: The moon starts moving over the Sun’s disk.
- Maximum Eclipse: The eclipse reaches its maximum magnitude. The Moon now covers more of the Sun’s disk than at any other moment during the eclipse.
- Partial solar eclipse ends: The Moon stops covering the sun.
On average, about 35% of all solar eclipses are partial solar eclipses, meaning that they occur more often than total or annular solar eclipses. The larger the size of the Moon’s penumbra, compared to its umbra, the shadow’s dark center producing total solar eclipses, also means that more places on Earth get to experience a partial solar eclipse.
For Metro Detroit, here’s what you need to know for Saturday:
- Partial solar eclipse begins: 11:46 AM EDT
- Maximum Eclipse: 1:04 PM EDT – 46.2% of the sun will be covered in Metro Detroit for this eclipse
- Partial solar eclipse ends: 2:25 PM EDT
- Total Eclipse Time: 2 Hours, 39 Minutes
As of right now, the weather does not look to cooperate for us with widespread rain, cloud cover and gusty winds, it will make it very hard to near impossible to see this eclipse across most of Southeastern Michigan.
Of course, we will be talking more about this on Friday, then as we approach the Eclipse on Saturday.