Partial Solar Eclipse
March 29, 2025
On March 29, 2025, the Moon
will cover the Sun in a partial eclipse that will be seen mostly from
Europe, the north polar region, and the northeastern part of North America. The best place
to see it from the United States would be from somewhere along the coast of Maine, although if you
could travel to New Brunswick, Canada, the views would be even better. The moment of greatest
eclipse comes right around sunrise for northeastern North America, so we can look forward to excellent
photos of the eclipsed Sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean as long as the weather cooperates.
I used screen captures from Orion's TheSky™ planetarium software for the animation, with the
location set for Portland, Maine. The scene has been set for the local horizon in Portland, but
set to a nighttime scene to make the position and disks of the Sun and Moon more apparent. From
this we can see that the Sun won't exactly rise with horns pointing upward as has been the case at
some partial eclipses, but rather it will almost have the shape of a crescent Moon setting in the west,
except rising in the east!