Not long after the sun comes up on Saturday, part of it will be blotted out.
An annular solar eclipse, nicknamed the "ring of fire," will sweep across much of the Western Hemisphere on Saturday, and it’ll be viewable from right here in Sacramento.
The annular eclipse occurs while the moon is near or at the furthest point in its orbit around the Earth. The "ring of fire" effect happens when the moon, which appears smaller in the sky because it's further away from us, passes directly in front of the sun.
Saturday’s eclipse is expected to be viewable from Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, according to NASA. Viewers in the rest of the continental U.S. should be able to see a partial solar eclipse.
This map provided by NASA shows where the Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023 annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central, and South America.NASA via AP
Sacramento State is hosting an eclipse viewing party from 8-11 a.m. on Saturday. The university will provide a number of eclipse-viewing glasses and telescopes with solar filters — which will give viewers a less obstructed view of the eclipse — in addition to free planetarium shows.
CapRadio’s Mike Hagerty spoke with Sacramento State professor Chris Taylor, the chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, about the eclipse and the university’s watch party.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
Will we be able to see the eclipse here in Sacramento and when?
Yes. So the eclipse will not be a total eclipse in Sacramento. We're not in the exact right location for that, but we will see a partial eclipse tomorrow morning. And it's going to start at roughly 8:05 [a.m.] and it will last until about 10:45 in the morning. And the closest we get to a total eclipse — which will be about 86% coverage of the sun — will be about 9:20 in the morning.
There are different types of solar eclipses, and this is a type that happens fairly regularly, isn't it? What type of solar eclipse is this?
So what's happening tomorrow is what we call an annular solar eclipse. An annular is just a fancy geometry word for ring shaped events that happen when a solar eclipse happens. And it's that time of the moon's orbital period where it's a little bit further from us than normal. Therefore, it looks a little smaller than normal to your eye and therefore doesn't quite cover the entire sun. So the folks a little bit north of us, when the moon does move directly in front of the sun, they'll still see a small ring around it.
Are there any safety tips for those who want to observe the eclipse?
Yes. It's very important to never look at the sun directly without some kind of eye protection. And it should be something that's specifically labeled to be good for looking at eclipses.
Is there anything that we haven't touched on about this eclipse that you think is noteworthy that people ought to know about?
Well, it's exciting because we have an eclipse now. This one is pretty close to total. For us, it's 86%. There's one in April, which we have much less of a good view of. We will get a 24% or so coverage and then it's going to be almost a couple of decades before we have another in the continental United States.
So while it is sort of a common type of eclipse, we are not going to be seeing them terribly often for some time.
That's right. You may want to be planning your next vacation, you know, outside the U.S. if you want to make a priority of seeing the eclipse in the future.
Editor’s note: CapRadio is licensed to Sacramento State, which is also an underwriter.
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