2025: Year-End Astronomical Events
The year 2025 seems to be breezing by. But the sky still holds promises for eclipse, moons, and conjunctions!
Lunar Events
Use these upcoming events to take a fresh look at Earth’s nearest neighbor.
Supermoons Rule The Fall Season
Due to the elliptical shape of the lunar orbit, the distance from the Earth to the Moon can vary by 50,200 km (31,200 mi). The term Supermoon describes a full Moon that occurs near the Moon’s closest approach to Earth (perigee) while Micromoon describes a full Moon near the point furthest from the Earth (apogee). A Supermoon can be 14% bigger than a Micromoon. The difference in size is very obvious in photographic comparisons.
There is no agreed-upon definition of how close and far a Moon needs to be to qualify for any of these designations, so sources may differ on the number of these Moons in a year.
While there are no Micromoons left in the year, every full moon in the Fall season has a Supermoon this year (same as last year). From our reckoning, these are the dates of the remaining Supermoons of the year with the date of perigee in parenthesis:
October 7th (October 8th), November 5th (November 5th), and December 4th (December 4th).
Lunar Eclipse
Lunar eclipses happen when the Moon’s orbit passes on the side of the Earth opposite the Sun and enters the Earth’s shadow. There are two zones in the shadow: the outer penumbra and inner umbra. The shadow is very large and it is possible for the Moon to spend the eclipse in the penumbra where it will show only a slight dimming. A total lunar eclipse happens when the Moon completely enters the umbra.
The Moon will often turn a shade of orange or red during a total lunar eclipse. Hence the other name for this event is a blood moon. This is caused by sunlight passing through the atmosphere along the rim of the Earth and being refracted onto the Moon. Light turns red due to the scattering phenomena that causes sunrise and sunset to be red. In other words, the Moon in the umbra is dimly illuminated by every sunrise and sunset on the planet.
The full moon of September 7th will be a blood moon. Central Asia, India, the Horn of Africa, China, and western Australia will see the whole event. None of the event will be visible in the Americas, save for the western-most part of Alaska and the eastern-tip of South America. All other areas will see the beginning or end phases only.
Solar Events
Solar Eclipses
Because the Earth’s penumbral and umbral shadows are large at the distance of the Moon, the alignment of the Sun, Earth, and Moon two weeks before or after a lunar eclipse is often close enough to cause a solar eclipse. So, this year’s blood moon is followed two weeks later by the Partial Solar Eclipse of September 21st.
Because only 85% of the Sun will we covered at the point of greatest eclipse, viewers are cautioned to keep eclipse glasses on for all phases of this event. There will be no totality or solar corona to observe. This South Pacific eclipse is best viewed from New Zealand with the greatest obscuration being between New Zealand and Antarctica.
FoneMate for Smartphone Imaging
FoneMate™ can help to get steadier shots at the eyepiece with your smartphone camera. Unlike other phone mounts, FoneMate was designed to mount solidly to Tele Vue eyepieces via its Tele Vue compatible lock-ring connection. Use our FoneMate™ smartphone adapter (mobile site) on a compatible Tele Vue eyepiece to share lunar, solar, and eclipse views with friends or to do on-the-go imaging.
While your camera app displays the image on the screen, hit the shutter or video button to capture the moment. Use voice commands to avoid movement on night imaging. (If you’ve set up your iOS/Android phone to take voice commands, just say “Hey Siri/Ok Google, take a photo”.) Using a time-lapse photo app will allow you to capture longer events like eclipses/transits (use telescope filters for solar work).
The Planets
Oppositions
Planets in opposition are in the sky opposite the Sun when viewed from Earth. They rise at sunset and are in the sky all night. Around opposition, the planets are closest to Earth and at their brightest. This makes opposition an opportune time to view and image a planet — especially the faint “ice giants” Uranus and Neptune. Note that only planets with orbits further away from the Sun than Earth’s orbit can be in opposition.
Fall is opposition season with all the giant planets sparkling in the the sky at night.
- Saturn: September 21st
- Neptune: September 23rd
- Uranus: November 21st
The Most Versatile Planetary Eyepiece!
The Nagler Zoom was conceived as our ideal planetary eyepiece. Like all Tele Vue eyepieces, it’s designed for full-field sharpness in any speed telescope, as well as high contrast and transmission with natural color rendition, low scatter, and comfortable eye relief. Use it to fine-tune magnification for the seeing conditions — no need to swap eyepieces to find the highest usable power. It’s parfocal through the zoom range, maintains its eye relief, and has click-stops at each marked focal length. Its constant 50° apparent field of view makes it more appropriate for scopes on tracking mounts. It is excellent for turning up the power to confirm that you’ve sighted an ice-giant planet like Uranus or Neptune and not a field star. Read more about it on our website Nagler 3-6-mm and (mobile site).
Planetary Conjunctions
Moving along the ecliptic path, sometimes planets cozy up to each other or with the Moon. While most people are asleep, the two most brilliant planets rise three-hours before the Sun and form a spectacular pair in Gemini with Jupiter to the north of Venus. On August 12th they were 51 apart. The last, best northern hemisphere conjunction is in mid-September involving the Moon, Venus, and the star Regulus.
- September 19th morning: Conjunction of Moon and Venus (48′ at closest). A haunting scene will fill the predawn sky as a weakly glowing thin crescent Moon — two days before New Moon — rises with Venus and the star Regulus about 2.5-hours before sunrise. They will form an exclamation point in the morning sky.
Did you observe, sketch, or image with Tele Vue gear? We’ll like your social media post on that if you tag it #televue and the gear used. Example:
#televue #tv85 #ethos #Venus #Moon #conjunction
Do you want your Tele Vue images re-posted on Tele Vue Optics’ Social Media accounts? Use this hashtag for consideration:
#RPTVO
