Tidbit for November 22, 1999:
Mark your Long-range Calendar for
the Best Sky Sights of the Next Century
If you're a star gazer and a long-range planner, you're in luck! The millennium edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac features an article titled "Best Sky Sights of the Next Century--Guaranteed!" and you'll definitely want to mark your calendar so that you're not tied up in an important board meeting when the longest total solar eclipse in U.S. history takes place in 2045 or washing your hair when you could be wishing on a "storm" of shooting stars!
Here's a quick look at some of the Almanac's picks for the best celestial sights of the next century:
The U.S. will see a spectacular
seven total solar eclipses in the next century. (Canada will see four.) The August 21,
2017 total solar eclipse will cast a "185-mile-wide shadow" that will
"slash the country from coast to coast--west to east--like a calligraphy
brushstroke." The next eclipse will take place April 8, 2024, followed by the longest
total eclipse in U.S. history (six minutes) on August 12, 2045. There'll be a short total
eclipse over Georgia in 2052, then an incredible two total solar eclipses
within a one-year span--May 11, 2078 and May 1, 2079. The final total eclipse of the
century will cast its shadow over the north-central and mid-Atlantic states in September
of 2099. For Canadians who want to plan ahead, total eclipse dates for Canada are: April
8, 2024; August 22, 2044; May 1, 2079; and September 14, 2099. The official Almanac.com Web site has a calendar of eclipses worldwide for
2000 online.
Comet watchers will want to stay
healthy so that they'll be around when the most famous comet of all, Halley's Comet,
returns in 2061. According to the Almanac, "it should span half the sky. Moreover, it
will float in front of the stars of the Big Dipper, making it prominent for observers in
the United States and Canada."
Want to wish on a shower of falling
stars? Meteor "storms," in which 50 to 100 shooting stars fall per second, took
place in 1799, 1833, and 1966. "Right now, it appears that the on-again, off-again
33-1/3-year periodicity of the Leonids should continue, giving us good opportunities in
2033, 2066, and 2099," the Almanac says.
This century-long guide to the stars also includes a chart with dates of the "Best Planetary Encounters," when at least two of the three most brilliant planets--Venus, Jupiter, and Mars--pass extremely close to each other or to the moon. Order your own copy of the Almanac so that you'll be able to cut out and keep this handy chart on your refrigerator for the next 10 decades!
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Photograph of Farmer's Almanac 2000 by Kim Knox, copyright 1999.
