EARTH, MOON, SUN
They are things we see every day but on Monday, they align for a total eclipse in some areas of the world. Pennsylvania will see a partial eclipse of about 75 percent.
VIEWS ON EARTH
The first known records of humans seeing an eclipse date back more than 3,000 years, but people did not begin to understand that Earth revolved around the sun until the 1600s.
The fact that NASA has predicted the time, duration and exact path of this eclipse shows the some of the regularity of the universe that we have come to understand. Astronomers have predicted other total eclipses for the next 100 years, with the next total solar eclipse visible in North America on April 8, 2024.
You can visit NASA.com for livestream coverage on Monday.
VIA SATELLITE
When you hear the word satellite it might conjure images of high-tech space gadgets, but the moon is Earth's only natural satellite.
After Monday, the next total eclipse will be a lunar eclipse on Jan. 31, 2018.
The first artificial satellite was put into orbit in 1957 by the Soviet Union, and about 6,000 more have followed.
Our moon is the fifth- largest in the solar system. Moons of other planets Mars 2 Jupiter 66 Saturn 62 Uranus 27 Neptune 13
PROTECT YOUR EYES
If you haven't purchased eclipse viewers yet, we suggest manufacturers or vendors that have been approved by the American Astronomical Society or International Organization for Standardization. Looking at the sun with substandard glasses may cause permanent damage to your eyes.
STAR OF THE SHOW
Our sun is one of more than 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Here are some other things to consider while our attention is turned to it:
The light you are seeing from the sun takes about 8 minutes, 20 seconds to travel to Earth.
In two hours the average solar flare releases enough energy to power the U.S. for 10,000 years.
The sun rotates on its axis approximately once every 27 Earth days.
During a single second, the sun converts 4 million tons of matter into pure energy.
SOLAR ECLIPSE GLASSES