Some general observations about the Diary

    The Astronomical Diary for 2005 (giving times of equinoxes, solstices, eclipses, lunar phases, and beginning/ending dates of Eastern Daylight Savings Time) is tabulated here.  It reports these in the time format most useful to Maine, i.e. all times are given in Eastern Time (Standard or Daylight Savings, as appropriate).  Some almanacs and calendars are casual about this time change, and/or give the data in Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time).

   The lunar and solar events given do not depend on one's location on Earth. Therefore the times are the moments (in Eastern Time) when they precisely occur.  However, sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset do depend on location.  Link to the U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications: Data Online page to calculate these at need.

   As you are sure to notice, there are two Last Quarter Moons in May and two New Moons in December, 2005.  There is no special name for these happenstances, but they are interesting to note, nonetheless.   The Moon's synodic period of revolution around the Earth is approximately 29.5 days -- known as 1 lunation, when counted from one Full Moon phase to the next.  Because May begins with a First Quarter Moon on the 1st, two just happen to both squeeze into that month.  Likewise, . December begins with a New Moon on the 1st, and so two just happen to both squeeze into December.  And if you appreciate synchronicities, there is a New Moon late on New Year's Eve, within a couple of hours of the beginning of the New Year 2006, a coincidence of the two cycles, lunar and solar.

  There are usually two periods a year (called "eclipse seasons") when the alignment of Sun, Earth and Moon allow lunar and solar eclipses.  This year, they occur in early to mid-April and early to mid-October. Some years we are lucky and many occur. (For example in 1998 there were 2 solar eclipses and 3 lunar.  In 2000 there were 4 solar eclipses and 2 lunar.) But there isn't a cosmic law favoring the view of eclipses in Maine, nor even for the Northern Hemisphere.

No solar eclipses are visible in Maine in 2005. The one lunar eclipse of the year visible in our state will only be "penumbral" where the Moon does not fall fully into the dark part of the Earth's shadow.   The show -- what little there is of it -- starts just before the listed time of Full Moon. (Lunar eclipses by their very nature must occur at the time of Full Moon.)  Don't say I didn't warn you:  the shadow effect will only be barely discernible in this eclipse.