It’s called The Great American Eclipse and it is coming soon to Minnesota.  (The last time that a solar eclipse crossed the U.S. from coast to coast was June 8, 1918.) Monday, Aug. 21, just before noon, the moon will begin to pass in front of the sun.  Within about an hour the moon will reach a maximum coverage of about 80% of the sun here in Becker.  Even with 80% of the sun covered, we will not be able to detect any change in the amount of sunlight coming from the sun.  It will still be as bright as any other clear day.  

 

Here is what a lot of people, especially young children, don’t realize.  People will make the mistake of trying to observe a partial eclipse and try to look directly at the sun without proper viewing protection.  (Sunglasses are NOT sufficient protection for your eyes). In recent events, people who stared at the sun during an eclipse without protection for several minutes were left with permanent damage to their eyesight, even blindness.            

 

 Another thing that has been recently discovered is that the damage is cumulative.  People will stare at the sun for 20-30 seconds, look away to give them a break, then stare at it for another 20-30 seconds, and so on. This is equivalent to staring at the sun directly for the accumulated time without stopping, and the damage is done. 

 

There are a couple of ways to safely observe the eclipse.  Obviously, eclipse glasses are the best way to really enjoy observing the sun.  (You can purchase these from a number of places online.)  You can look through a welder’s mask, but obviously these are pretty big and bulky to use, especially for children.  You can also make a pinhole in a piece of cardboard or paper, then hold it above your shoulder with your back to the sun.  This should create an ‘image’ on the ground that you can safely view.  (This is the least exciting of the 3, because you are just seeing a shadow).

 

CuriosityStream.com has created a great series that gives a lot of wonderful information about the upcoming eclipse called Eclipse Across America.  This also gives you information about where to go if you want to see the total eclipse, not just the partial that we will be experiencing here in Minnesota.  If you do decide to travel to see the total eclipse, book your hotel soon.  Many hotels and campgrounds in the prime locations have already been booked.

 

Amazingly, another opportunity will present itself in 2024.  But the month for that one will be April, which has more tendencies to be cloudier.  August is usually one of the driest months across most of the U.S. and so the least cloudy.