Get ready for today's 'Ring of Fire' eclipse

In 1994, I drove from my home in Kellogg, Iowa to Normal, Illinois to view a rare celestial event: an annular solar eclipse. Another one will occur in a matter of hours, and will be visible in a path from northern California through parts of western Texas, including Lubbock.

An annular eclipse takes place when the moon passes directly between the sun and one's viewpoint on earth, but is too far away to completely cover the sun's disk. The result is a "ring of fire" effect which everybody should experience at least once.

I'd been told what to expect by a parishioner who, as a missionary's son, had seen an annular eclipse in South American. Just as he predicted, he birds started to settle in for the night. The temperature dropped appreciably. I noticed a bizarre phenomenon he'd mentioned: any round hole- including the shadow of the space between one's index finger and thumb when one made an "OK" sign- displayed a crescent shape. and at annularity became a black dot surrounded by a ring of light.

The effect even extended to the spaces between the shadows of the leaves on the trees. It was pretty weird. It was also one of the great astronomical treats of my life. A total eclipse will be visible here in the Midwest in 2017, and I'm pleased that, God willing, I'll actually have a chance to see one of those before I die. But I'm especially grateful that I also had a chance to see an annular.

This far East, the sun will merely set in partial eclipse tonight, and I've seen plenty of partial solar eclipses before. But I still will go out and look. A word of caution, though: if you stare directly into the sun, you will go painlessly blind. You will not even notice it happening. It's called a "macular burn." The rays of the sun will cook your retina, and an expanding blind spot will permanently appear in the center of your field of vision.

Never look directly at the sun without special Mylar eclipse-viewing glasses available through stores and websites dealing in astronomical equipment! This is the same material used for solar filters on telescopes, and the faceplates of astronauts' space suits. The jury is out on other filters, including even welder's glasses. Ordinary sun-glasses will NOT do the trick.

If you can't get a hold of a Mylar filter or glasses, just punch a hole in a piece of cardboard and view the dot of sunlight which comes over your shoulder and through it onto the ground. It will display the very same effect the passing moon has on the disk of the sun.

Here's a video on today's eclipse:



HT: Drudge