When the moon passes directly between the Earth and sun we witness either a total or annular solar eclipse. Sunday’s eclipse will be both – a rarity! In an annular or ring eclipse, the moon covers all but a bright ring of sunlight around the sun’s circumference. Just like a total eclipse, the moon moves centrally across the sun, but it’s near the far end of its orbit and too small to completely cover the solar disk.
Sunday’s eclipse begins at sunrise in the Atlantic Ocean some 600 miles (1,000 km) east of Florida with the silhouetted moon circled by the thinnest of fiery rings. Not long after, the curvature of the Earth shrinks the distance between Earth and moon just enough for the moon to completely cover the sun in total eclipse. Because the two make a “tight fit”, this eclipse will last only 99 1/2 seconds at longest. That happens around 12:45 p.m. local time a couple hundred miles off the Liberian coast.
Most locations will experience even less totality, including Kenya, the location with the greatest chance of clear skies; 11 seconds will be all she’ll write.
After making landfall in Gabon, the moon’s shadow sweeps eastward across central Africa ending in Somalia at sunset where totality lasts a fleeting one second.
A partial eclipse will be visible from Spain to South Africa and across the northern third of South America and the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada. If you live west of a line passing through central Ohio, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and western Georgia, it’ll (sadly) be over before the sun rises.
For the East Coast the eclipse will already be at underway and at maximum at sunrise with anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the sun covered. Here are a few locations and the percentage of sun that will be cloaked by the moon. The event wraps up around 7:10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time or between 30-45 minutes after sunrise. For circumstances for more towns, click HERE:
* Akron 6%
* Baltimore 37%
* Boston 54%
* Columbia, SC 21%
* Miami 36%
* New York 48%
* Philadelphia 44%
* Washington DC 35%
* Quebec, QC. 36%
* Ottawa, ON. 23%
This excellent map by cartographer Michael Zeiler showing the eclipse boundaries and circumstances across Central America, the East Coast and Canada. If you do plan to watch, find a place with a wide-open view to the east and try to get situated. A safe, handheld solar filter is a must. You can also poke a small hole in a piece of cardboard and cast an image of the sun on the ground. The smaller the hole the sharper but fainter the image.
Don’t forget! We lose daylight saving time on Sunday morning, so if the sun rises around 6:30 a.m. for you Saturday, it will rise one hour earlier Sunday at 5:30.