Mini morning eclipse coming Thursday
This coming Thursday is solar eclipse time in Butler. It's been a while.
The last one was Aug. 21, 2017. Here in Butler it was a partial eclipse, but in a strip from Oregon to South Carolina it was a total eclipse.
Maybe some of you were somewhere along the totality path. My wife and I and some wonderful friends watched it from a farm outside of Ravenna, Neb. That was one of the best days of my life! If you ever get a chance to see one do it! Words cannot describe the experience.
On Thursday, we won't have a total solar eclipse, but we'll have a good partial solar eclipse around here. If you want to see a total solar eclipse that day, jump on a plane to either eastern Russia, the Arctic Ocean, western Greenland, or eastern Canada. It won't be quite a total eclipse in Nova Scotia. (Remember that line in 1970's Carley Simon hit, You're So Vain?)
Anyway, the moon's disk will be too small to cover the entire disk of the sun. This is called an annular total solar eclipse. The moon's disk isn't large enough because the eclipse is occurring during the moon's monthly maximum distance from Earth. During totality the sun looks like a bright donut.
Many portions of the northern and eastern United States will see a partial eclipse. We're lucky to be included although it'll be a very short eclipse.
In Butler, the eclipse will begin a little around 4:43 a.m. Don't set your alarm for then because obviously, the sun won't be up by then! By the time the sun rises at 5:47 a.m., the sun will already be more than 60% covered up on the left side of the sun's disk!
The peak of the eclipse will be at 5:50 a.m. for us, but by a little after 6:33 a.m., it'll be all over as the moon's disk backs out.
As it is with any eclipse you never want to stare directly at the sun! You could easily do permanent damage in a very short time. With binoculars or a telescope, you could go permanently blind in less than a second.The only way to view it directly is with special eclipse glasses. Maybe you still have a pair around the house from the 2017 eclipse.If you don't have those glasses, view it with the projection method. As you see in the diagram, hold a piece of white cardboard with a pinhole in it over another piece of stiff white cardboard. White fiberboard works well, too.The best and safest way to aim the piece with the pinhole at the black card is to stand with your back to the sun and hold the pinhole piece back toward the sun. Use the shadow of the cardboard to aim it over the black cardboard, and you should be able to see the eclipse with absolutely no danger. It really works!Mark your calendars for April 8, 2024, for major United States total eclipse. If you're like me and don't mind traveling a bit to see a total solar eclipse, there'll be a broad band of totality from Texas to New England. It'll almost be a total eclipse in Pennsylvania, but if you can, jump in the car and travel to totality.Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
