Devil Horn Sunrise

After many North Americans were treated to a stunning total solar eclipse in 2024, the partial solar eclipse slated to transpire in spring 2025 might have seemed trivial in comparison.

While nothing can approximate the experience of totality, this partial eclipse promised something more than the run-of-the-mill crescent.

The 29 March event was visible from 14 states – Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia – in addition to the District of Columbia and parts of eastern Canada.

The magic of this eclipse occurred thanks to its timing. 2024’s glorious totality happened in the middle of the day, allowing a spectacular show from above. The Moon threw a fractional shadow over the Sun in 2025 between 6:13 AM and 7:17 AM EDT. This window might seem limiting, as many people would not be awake.

However, the celestial scheduling provided a rare opportunity.

Sunrise at Maine’s Acadia National Park, as one example, took place that day at 6:19 AM.

When a syzygy of Sun, Moon, and Earth combines with a location’s rising star, a unique experience develops with two intriguing names: a double sunrise or a devil-horn sunrise.

Instead of the normal semicircle popping up above the eastern horizon, the Moon’s shadow obscured the central portion, producing a great geometry.

This doubling can only happen if the horizon or clouds obscure the bottom of the Sun’s disc. Solar eclipses are already relatively rare, so combining them with the timing of a sunrise makes this phenomenon rather peculiar.

An inverted set of horns can appear if the Moon’s shadow occludes the bottom part of the Sun and clouds litter the upper portions, or the conjunction happens at sunset.

In days of yore, this scenery could easily have appeared to be an omen of ill repute, striking terror into superstitious minds.

Today, I would view a sighting as a blessing, a deeply impressionable example of the rhythms of the solar system and a reminder to revel in our intersections with cosmic oddities.