/eclipse
/eclipse [location] [local] [remember]
Shows a countdown to the next solar eclipse and the next lunar eclipse, with the eclipse type (total/partial/annular/penumbral) and which parts of the world will be able to see it. Give it a location and it also works out what the next solar eclipse that reaches that place looks like from there.
Usage: /eclipse for the countdown, no arguments needed. Or
/eclipse location: Madrid (any city, or coordinates like
36.1628, -85.5016) for local times, or /eclipse local: True to
use your saved default location. remember: True saves a typed
location as your new default.
From your location — the time of each contact (when the Moon first touches the Sun, when totality or annularity starts and ends, when it all finishes), the maximum, how much of the Sun is covered (magnitude and percentage of its area), how long totality lasts, and where the Sun is in your sky at each moment. A picture shows the Moon in front of the Sun at maximum, drawn the way it looks in your sky (the top is straight up; an arrow marks celestial north). It picks the next listed eclipse you can actually see; if the Sun is still rising or already setting during it, it says so. Times are on your location’s real clock.
Private by design — a local reply is sent so only you can see it. Contact times to the second, with the Sun’s position, are specific enough to work back to a place, so they aren’t posted in the channel. The countdown without a location is public as before.
Local times assume a smooth-edged Moon, so they can differ from NASA’s tables by a few seconds (up to about five for the length of totality), and only the eclipses in the list below are covered.
Always use certified eclipse glasses for direct solar eclipse viewing — regular sunglasses are not safe for this.
Parameters
| Name | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
location | No | City, decimal or DMS coordinates: show the next solar eclipse as seen from there |
local | No | Show the next solar eclipse from your saved default location |
remember | No | Also save this as your new default location (otherwise this is a one-off lookup) |