A windmill is silhouetted in front of a partial solar eclipse on June 10, 2002 near Ellis, Kan., as many residents of western Kansas were able to see the event which continued through sunset on the Plains. (AP Photo/Hays Daily News, Steven Hausler)
Do you remember 1994? Don’t get mad, but I was 7 in May of that year. I remember teacher taking us outside, handing everyone special glasses to look at the sky at something they told me I wouldn’t see again until my mid- to late-20s.
Well,
here we are!
The moon will cast its shadow on the Earth Sunday, and for the first time since 1994, Oklahoma will able to see at some of a partial eclipse. Well, the path of the eclipse will be closest since then.
Now don’t get too excited: We are outside the swath that will get the full annular eclipse. And, it will end at sunset, with an hour from when the eclipse will begin to sunset, when it will be about halfway over.
But the shadow will produce an annular eclipse that starts in eastern Asia, crosses to the northern Pacific to near the Aleutian Islands of Alaska before coming ashore near the California/Oregon border and sweep southeast through parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico before ending at sunset near Lubbock, Texas.
Here is a handy gif of that happening, thanks to NASA:
“But Jerry, why do you keep saying ‘annular eclipse?’ What does that mean and why are you posing questions to yourself?”
An annular eclipse is when the moon is at a point far enough away from the sun that it appears smaller and does not completely cover the sun, creating a bright ring (or annulus, Latin for little ring) around the moon’s outline.
We will not see the annulus, but we should be able to see at least some of the moon in front of the sun.
I keep saying “see.” I don’t mean that literally, because you should
never, ever, ever look at the sun, ever. Don’t do it. Even eclipsed, the sun can fry your little eyeballs and cause permanent damage.
So how do you see it? Don’t fret: there are ways to view the eclipse without looking at the sun.
One is by special eclipse glasses, but unless you want to pay for overnight shipping today or tomorrow, or happen to find them at a store in Tulsa, that option is out the window.
The cheaper, easier and more practical option is to create a pinhole projector. You can find those instructions
here.
Will you miss this eclipse? Don’t worry; you won’t have to wait 18 years to see the next one. In fact, you just have to wait about five years. A total solar eclipse is predicted to occur on
August 21, 2017. Its path is quite narrow, but will go nearly through Kansas City and across Missouri. Very close to us. In fact, the closest total eclipse since 1918 and the closest until 2024.
Ready to have your mind blown? Here is what an eclipse looks like from space, thanks to the ISS. This was over Turkey on March 29, 2006.
Woah, right? I know.
--Jerry Wofford
