Partial solar eclipse will still be cool to see
Yuma will experience 59.7% coverage monday – so get those solar glasses ready
Much of the United States is going to witness quite the spectacle on April 8, when a total eclipse takes place as the moon completely blocks the visible surface of the sun
That eclipse will be visible in its entirety in a narrow track that arcs through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and just nicks Tennessee and Michigan.
According to Astronomy. com, approximately 31.5 million people in the U.S. will be able to walk outside, look up and see the total eclipse.
Sadly, Arizona will not have a spectacular seat at this table.
However, we do have a backrow seat of sorts, and readers, that’s still pretty cool.
NASA has published an Eclipse Explorer on its website (nasa.gov). Enter your zip code, and you can see how much of the eclipse will be visible – and the exact times.
In Yuma, zip code 85364, the eclipse will begin at 10:05 a.m. April 8 with the maximum visibility here reaching a coverage of 59.7% at 11:14 a.m. The event will conclude here by 12:28 p.m., NASA notes.
Readers, that’s worth checking out.
However, before you head outside and tip your head back to the sky, remember that you have to use safe solar viewing glasses (eclipse glasses). Regular sunglasses will not protect you, NASA notes.
“Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker and ought to comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard,” NASA notes.
Or, you can get creative, and use an indirect viewing method.
“One way is to use a pinhole projector, which has a small opening (for example, a hole punched in an index card) and projects an image of the Sun onto a nearby surface. With the Sun at your back, you can then safely view the projected image. Do NOT look at the Sun through the pinhole,” NASA reports.
You can find directions online at https://science. nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/safety/.
Solar eclipses are an amazing sight to behold – and they don’t happen too terribly often. The last total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. was on Aug. 21, 2017, and NASA notes the next total solar eclipse that will be visible from the contiguous US won’t happen until Aug. 23, 2044.
While we wish it was visible here, we’re still excited to see a partial solar eclipse. So get those eclipse-safe glasses and mark your calendars for April 8, readers!
Unsigned editorials represent the viewpoint of this newspaper rather than an individual. Columns and letters to the editor represent the viewpoints of the persons writing them and do not necessarily represent the views of the Yuma Sun.