Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2025 January 3 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Eclipse Pair Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Josh Dury Explanation: [5]Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the full and new [6]phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a lunar and a solar eclipse. But only rarely is the alignment at both new moon and full moon phases during a single eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total (or a total and an annular) lunar and solar eclipses. More often, partial eclipses are part of any eclipse season. In fact, the last eclipse season of 2024 produced this fortnight-separated eclipse pair: a [7]partial lunar eclipse on 18 September and an [8]annular solar eclipse on 2 October. The time-lapse composite images were captured from Somerset, UK (left) and [9]Rapa Nui planet Earth. The [10]2025 eclipse seasons will see a total lunar eclipse on 14 March paired with a partial solar eclipse on 29 March, and a total lunar eclipse on 8 September followed by a partial solar eclipse on 21 September. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [11]< | [12]Archive | [13]Submissions | [14]Index | [15]Search | [16]Calendar | [17]RSS | [18]Education | [19]About APOD | [20]Discuss | [21]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [22]Robert Nemiroff ([23]MTU) & [24]Jerry Bonnell ([25]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [26]Specific rights apply. [27]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [28]ASD at [29]NASA / [30]GSFC, [31]NASA Science Activation & [32]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2501/APODEclipsePair2048.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.joshduryphoto-media.com/ 5. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/may-june-2021-special-eclipse-season/ 6. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4874 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240920.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241008.html 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241011.html 10. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/2025 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250102.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 15. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 20. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250103 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250104.html 22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 25. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 27. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 28. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 29. https://www.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 31. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 32. http://www.mtu.edu/