Eclipses

Eye on the Sky Vol. 7 – October 7, 2023

We get to witness TWO solar eclipses in the next few months! One is this week and the other will be in April. An eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. It blocks out some or all of the light of the Sun, depending on the distance of the Sun and Moon from Earth at the time and where you are on Earth when you are looking. Eclipses happen just about every year, but they are only visible in a very small area when they happen, so it’s rare to see one no matter where you live. The last one we saw in the US was in 2017!

The eclipse in April will be incredibly exciting because it will be a TOTAL eclipse (queue the Bonnie Tyler song.) Those are quite rare. Only one in every four eclipses is a total eclipse. This week though, on the morning of October 14, we will get to see an ANNULAR eclipse. You see, the Earth revolves around the Sun in an elliptical path. That means it’s not a perfect circle. The Moon does the same thing around the Earth. So, sometimes the Earth is a little closer to the Sun, and other times it’s further away. Sometimes the Moon is a little closer to Earth, and sometimes it’s further away. That is why it is pretty rare for them to all line up perfectly. An annular eclipse happens when the Earth is closer to the Sun and/or the Moon is further away from Earth. This makes the moon look smaller and there will still be quite a bit of light forming a “ring of fire” around the moon. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!! The light that is still shining during an annular eclipse is enough to permanently damage your eyes! There are ways to see it safely though:

1. Poke a hole in a piece of paper and hold it so you can see its shadow on the ground. The shape of light that’s projected through the hole is the exact shape of the sun, as it’s covered by the moon!

2. Use solar eclipse glasses! If you order them from Amazon this weekend, they should be here in time. Only buy glasses that meet the ISO 12312-2 safety standard!! OR You can come to Mrs. Cova’s classroom after school or between classes on Wednesday, the 11th to grab a pair! We only have a limited amount, so only one per student until they’re gone.

In San Diego, we’ll get a magnitude of around 76%, so it will look like a crescent shape to us. Here is a simulator that you can check out to see what to expect. It’s the absolute safest way to view the eclipses! Remember, NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!! Other resources to learn more about the eclipses are the American Astronomical Society and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Cal Tech.

We’ll be projecting the sun’s shape onto the ground with our hole-punched papers a little after 8:00 in the morning, then we’ll look with our glasses around 9:20 to see the annularity. After that, we’ll be blasting Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles! ☀️