The places that won’t experience a partial solar eclipse are Alaska and the southernmost point of South America.
What to expect?
Viewers will be able to see an annular solar eclipse, which is characterised by a halo of sunlight surrounding the new moon. The route will pass through, entirely or partially, southern Oregon, northern Nevada, northeastern California, southwestern Idaho, Utah, southwestern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. A sight of the “ring of fire” can also be seen from parts of Belize, Panama, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Brazil.
“More than 65 million people reside in this annularity path, and an additional 68 million people live within 200 miles [320 km] of the path,” stated Alex Lockwood, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s strategic content and integration lead, during a press conference on September 26. He added that everyone in the connecting United States can watch a partial solar eclipse.
Timeanddate.com provides a schedule of eclipse viewing hours for every place. October’s event will be the first annular solar eclipse to traverse the United States since May 20, 2012.
How to watch the eclipse?
NASA states that since the moon will never entirely obstruct the sun, all spectators must wear protective solar viewing glasses the entire time.
Kelly Korreck, the eclipse program manager at NASA headquarters, stated that they are asking people to go out and observe the eclipse safely, making sure that they are equipped with ISO [International Organization for Standardization]-certified glasses.
Many of the vendors on the American Astronomical Society’s list of safe solar filter and viewer providers that meet ISO 12312-2 safety standards still have supplies available for this weekend’s event.
Note the indirect ways of viewing the eclipse. These include utilising a disco ball to reflect sunlight onto a nearby wall or floor, making your own pinhole eclipse viewer out of common household materials or projecting the eclipse’s shadow through a kitchen colander.
NASA will stream the eclipse live online from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Kerrville, Texas, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. EDT.