Eclipse isn’t for the eyes

People warned not to look at next Monday’s solar eclipse without proper eye protection

Aweek from now, southern Alberta skies will be darkened by a near-total eclipse of the sun. But local astronomers are warning: Don’t look! Watching the eclipse without protective glasses can result in severe eye damage or blindness, specialists say.

“Don’t improvise your own solution,” cautions Tom Anderson, president of the Lethbridge Astronomy Society. “There are some very real risks.”

Anderson issued the warning at the start of an information session presented at group’s Oldman River Observatory in Popson Park.

Local retailers are reported to have run out of the inexpensive glasses created for the occasion, speakers noted. But a welders’ mask rated at about 14 could be a safe alternative.

Next Monday’s total eclipse will be seen within a predicted path across the U.S., starting on the coast of Oregon and crossing southern Idaho and Wyoming. In Lethbridge, explained club member Bob Orth, about 85 per cent of the sun’s surface will be blocked by the moon.

The event is predicted to start at 10:19 a.m., he said, with the skies darkest at 11:34. The eclipse will end about 12:52 p.m.

Solar eclipse prediction seems to have begun about 4,000 years ago, he said. But eclipses were also depicted by artists who decorated the caskets of ancient Egyptian nobility.

And in 744 B.C., he said, Babylonian scholars discovered the 54-year cycle that astronomers work with today.

Next Monday, Orth said, some scientists plan to record the phenomenon from a military jet, following its path across the U.S. The apparent speed of the eclipse as it crosses the continent is estimated at 3,400 km/h. But Earth’s rotation, in the same direction, will seemingly slow it somewhat.

Within the path of total eclipse, he reported, scientists and properly protected amateurs may see “shadow bands” as totality approaches. And during the brief moments of full eclipse, “Bailey’s beads” — like a wedding ring with a large diamond on top — can be seen.

Orth pointed out solar eclipses (total, partial or annular) occur several times each year. But many would be visible over an ocean or in a polar region.

For those who want to plan ahead, he said the next total eclipse over Lethbridge is scheduled for 2044.

But looking further ahead, he said eclipses will disappear. The Earth’s rotation is slowing, for one thing, and moon is moving farther away — while the sun is predicted to grow larger and hotter.

But there’s no need for alarm, he suggested. That’s millions of years and eclipses away.

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