Total eclipse: the chance of a generation
Apr. 6—On Monday, people across the country will have a chance to see a phenomenon they won't be able to see for another 20 years.
A total solar eclipse will be visible in North America.
"It's relatively rare to have an eclipse visible from the place you are," said Tony Smith, an educator with the 135-year-old Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
This has been a busy year for Smith, a Pullman resident who oversees hundreds of volunteers across the country with the mission of educating the public about the eclipse.
When the moon passes in front of the sun, everyone in America will have a chance to see it as long as there is no cloud cover, he said.
But some will see more of the sun covered than others. On the Palouse and in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, people will see about 25% of the sun covered by the moon. With so much of the sun still visible, Smith warns people to wear eclipse glasses or not look directly at the eclipse.
"It is never going to be safe to look at the sun without eclipse glasses," he said.
He said the moon will pass in front of the sun from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. As of Friday, the National Weather Service says the weather will be mostly sunny in the region Monday.
Smith said there are other methods of viewing the eclipse for those who don't own eclipse glasses. He said they can cut pinholes into cardboard and let the light from the sun project through the pinholes and onto a white sheet of paper. Or, instead of cardboard, people can project the sun by holding up a colander in front of a sheet of paper.
People who live along the path of totality will see a total eclipse. The path of totality is a 115-mile-wide path that cuts diagonally across the U.S. from Texas to Maine. It is where the darkest part of the moon shadow crosses the country.
There will be smaller eclipses in the future, but Smith said it won't be until 2045 until the next total eclipse like this will be seen in North America.
Smith said eclipses are special because they become events that can bring large populations together. He said 200 million people will be able to look up at the sky and see the same event happening. Provided the skies are clear, of course.
"That's something to get excited about," he said.
Today, the Palouse Discovery Science Center in Pullman is teaching people about the eclipse with a free event called Solar Science Saturday.
The University of Idaho announced Thursday that a team of UI engineering students will use weather balloons to gather data on atmospheric disturbances produced during eclipse events. These disturbances include gravity waves that represent a transfer of energy through the atmosphere. For decades, scientists have been tracking gravity waves because of their influence on weather patterns and forecast accuracy, the UI said in a news release.
For the past year, these UI students have been training nationwide as the lead university in the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. They will launch their balloons in Pennsylvania.
Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.
