A solar eclipse may be coming to your neighborhood on Saturday, October 14th! The eclipse path crosses the USA from Oregon to Texas before proceeding across Central and South America.
The Four Corners region of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico will have a great view, but those of us in Cottonwood will also see some occlusion of the sun that day. (Image from GreatAmericanEclipse.com)
Why all the fuss about a solar eclipse?
So What?
It takes three points of alignment to see an eclipse – the sun, the moon and you.
It is rare occurrence of Nature. The sun and moon are in our sky daily, but on this day they line up together, with the moon between us and the sun. Imagine the strong gravitational pull from both those heavenly bodies. Not only ocean tides, but the waters in our own bodies respond.
Unusual changes are happening all around and being tuned to Nature can help us appreciate them. First, the landscape dims as the moon moves between us and the sun so that we only see a crescent. As it becomes darker, the air temperature can suddenly cool.
In the plant world, notice crescent-shaped sunbeams under leafy trees. As the sun goes through the leaves, tiny images of the eclipsed sun appear on the ground.
Listen carefully to Nature for changes in wildlife around you. Bird and insects are known to respond to the arrival of the Moon’s shadow.
What’s happening?
The alignment of the observer, the moon and the sun is dependent on the size of the sun and moon, their distances from each other and the Earth, and the shape of the moon’s orbit. That’s why it is such a rare occurrence. Isn’t this an awesome confluence of events?
This eclipse is called “annular” because at maximum – when the moon is centered on the sun from our perspective – a ring of fire appears around the moon as the sun shines around it. This only lasts a few minutes as the moon and Earth continue to move in relation to the sun.
For those of us a bit off center from this alignment, we will see the sun become a crescent as the moon takes a bite out of as it moves across. Depending on how far away from the center, the crescent will be thinner or wider.
A TOTAL solar eclipse in North America is upcoming on April 8, 2024, so stay tuned.
Safety First
An eclipsed sun is not safe to look at. Don’t risk eye damage by simply wearing sunglasses to look at the eclipse.
One of the places you can get eye protection such as safe eclipse glasses and solar binoculars is from GreatAmericanEclipse.com. The eclipse glasses filter light like welder’s googles so that you can enjoy looking through them directly at the sun as the moon moves across it.
As previously mentioned, you can also follow the progress of the eclipse by simply looking at the miniature eclipsed suns on the ground beneath a tree where the sunlight is filtering through the leaves.
Don’t miss it!
You may want to mark your calendar because the eclipse at maximum lasts only for a few minutes. The eclipse is happening within a window of a few hours’ time. You can check on a table of locations and times at the NASA website.
In Cottonwood it looks to be on Saturday, October 14th from about 9 am to 12 noon, with maximum around half past 10 am.
The City of Cottonwood is hosting a party at the skate park at Riverfront Park and the Cottonwood Library is providing viewing glasses. See the poster below.
See you outside then – with your eclipse glasses on!
