Eclipse’s rules of the road: Be careful
Harry J. Augensen, professor of physics and astronomy at Widener University, will be flying out near Omaha, Neb., Saturday to get ready to see Monday’s total solar eclipse — unlike his colleague, Kevin Marshall, who will be driving out.
And although it’s unique, they are doing something motor advocates advise: They’re planning his trip.
So, while the Philadelphia region won’t witness the total eclipse, it still will experience about 75 percent cover, causing the area to be blanketed in an overcast atmosphere between 1:21 p.m. through 4 p.m., with its 2.5 minute height being approximately 2:45 p.m.
“Come Monday, drivers have to make a decision if you want to see the eclipse,” Kathleen Miller, public affairs specialist for AAA MidAtlantic, said. If you want to see it, she said, “Give yourself plenty of time to get where you want to see it and stay off the road.”
If you have to be on the road, she said you need to ask yourself how badly do you want to see it. If you want both, there is a way. “Build in some extra time,” Miller said. “Take an exit, do not pull off the side of the highway, don’t pull off on the shoulder.”
Do not, she emphasized, do both simultaneously.
“We can’t stress this enough – this could be distracted driving at its worst,” she said, adding that some people may think, “I’m going to have one hand on the wheel and I’m going to have my phone out the window.”
To that approach, definitive “no.”
“No pictures, no video and do not wear those eclipse glasses while driving,” the AAA spokeswoman said. “Some people may Miller had a think they’re glorified sunglasses and they’re not.”
Marshall, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Widener University who’s driving out to Nebraska, agreed.
“You literally cannot see anything with them on aside from the sun,” he said of the ISO glasses specially made for viewing eclipses. “You won’t be able to see anything.”
There are options – the special glasses, viewing the reflection from a cardboard box with a pinhole in it or just viewing the reflection on your hand – just don’t watch from the road, Miller warned.
If you have no interest in the eclipse at all and are driving, then keep your headlights on and keep your visor down, Miller recommended.
Yet, she understood unique event.
The last total solar eclipse in the Philadelphia area occurred in 1478, Augensen said, adding that it’s a the next 2079.
However, if you miss this one and you’re willing to drive six hours, there’s another total eclipse in 2024.
“There’s another total eclipse across America in seven years,” Marshall said. “That goes from the western part of Texas, sort of through the Northeast through one here will be May 1, New England and into Maine.”
But, for aficionados like Augensen, the director of Widener University’s observatory who’s never witnessed a total eclipse, this opportunity won’t be one to be missed or postponed.
”It’s great,” he said, “because it’s a natural phenomenon human beings cannot interfere with. This is completely out of our control.”