Solar & Lunar Eclipses Visible from Portland

Eclipse dates and contact times come from the NASA/Espenak catalog, and everything local to Portland — whether the moon or sun is above the horizon, how high it stands, what the horizon cuts off — is computed for 45.5051°, -122.6750° and converted to America/Los_Angeles. Nothing on this page is stamped with a build date: an eclipse is a catalogued instant, so where the shadow fell and how high the moon stood over Portland are as fixed for 2024 as for 2040. Only the "next eclipse" panel at the top reads the clock, and it does so in your browser.

What the horizon decides. A lunar eclipse is visible from wherever the moon is up, which is half the planet — but an eclipse runs for hours and can straddle moonrise or moonset, and then only part of it is Portland's. That is why each row carries the moon's altitude at greatest eclipse and, where it matters, which phase was under way as the moon crossed the horizon. An eclipse 70° up is overhead and unmistakable; the same eclipse a few degrees up is behind whatever Portland has on its skyline.

How the solar rows are worked out. Each comes from NASA's Besselian elements for that eclipse, evaluated at Portland's coordinates at sea level: when the moon's disc first touches the sun's and when it leaves, how much of the sun it covers, and — inside a path — how long totality or annularity lasts. "Covered" is the share of the sun's area, which is what decides how dark it gets; it agrees with the US Naval Observatory's own figures to within a fifth of a percentage point, and the times to within five seconds. Near the edge of a path, the last kilometre or so depends on the mountains along the moon's limb, which these figures leave out.

Safe viewing. A lunar eclipse is safe to watch with the naked eye, binoculars, or a telescope — it is only the full moon, dimmed. A solar eclipse is not: outside the brief totality of a total eclipse, looking at the sun needs ISO 12312-2 filters, and sunglasses are not filters — not even at 99% covered, when the sliver left is still bright enough to burn.