On Saturday, March 29, the skies will darken due to a solar eclipse. Unlike the “Great American Eclipse” of 2024, this event will not be a total eclipse, but rather a partial eclipse visible in the early morning hours in parts of the northern hemisphere.
Although this event will lack the dramatic “totality” of the 2024 eclipse, a partial eclipse is still worth witnessing. The sun will not be fully obscured, but with proper eye protection, you will be able to see the moon take a bite out of the sun. Additionally, the timing of this eclipse offers viewers the chance to see the famed “devil horns” — a crescent of solar light emerging from behind the moon, as the sun rises over the horizon.
To witness this partial solar eclipse and the “devil horns,” let’s discuss how to safely observe this event.
What areas will experience the partial solar eclipse, and when?
The partial solar eclipse will be visible in areas of the northern hemisphere. It will be visible at sunrise in eastern North America and sunset in Siberia, Russia on Saturday, March 29. In Europe, it can be viewed around mid-morning. However, the event’s footprint will be limited, with no eclipse visible west of Toronto, Canada, and Washington, DC in North America.
This global map of the partial solar eclipse from NASA may be confusing, but here’s how to read it. The yellow curve represents the path of the partial solar eclipse, moving from west to east. The lighter colored yellow curves indicate the percent obscuration of the sun, depending on the location and time.
Most of Europe will see around a 20 percent obscuration, while the extreme northeastern part of the United States will see up to 89 percent of the sun covered. The Nunavik region of Quebec will experience maximum obscuration of 94 percent. The green lines on the map show the eclipse’s progress over time, with times given in UTC, which is four hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time.
However, sunrise and sunset complicate things, depicted on the map by the orange loop. The left side of the loop shows where the eclipse ends at sunrise, and the right side is where it begins. To see the maximum partial solar eclipse at sunrise, it’s best to be along the blue line running down the middle of the orange loop.
Some places with maximum obscuration will have a shorter eclipse duration because the partial eclipse starts before sunrise. The sun will also be low on the horizon in North America, so any viewing location needs to be above tall trees with a clear view of sunrise. In Europe, viewing locations will be easier because the sun will be higher in the sky, but the sun will not be as obscured.
For example, in Bar Harbor, Maine, the sun rises at 6:19AM, and the maximum eclipse will be at 6:22AM, with 80 percent of the sun obscured. The partial eclipse will end at 7:11 am. However, the eclipse technically begins at 5:26 am ET, but since that’s before sunrise, viewers will miss about half of the potential eclipse viewing time.
Moving south, the best view will be through coastal New England, then down through Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia. The path basically ends in Washington, DC, where just 1.2 percent of the sun will be obscured at 6:59AM ET.
According to Time and Date, only 44,800 people will see a 90 percent partial eclipse, while 3,820,000 will see an 80 percent eclipse. This is significantly fewer than the 30 million people in the path of totality for the 2024 total solar eclipse.
Will a total solar eclipse be visible in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?
No, there is nowhere on Earth where a total solar eclipse will be visible for this event. A solar eclipse occurs when the sun, the moon, and the Earth align. However, because the moon doesn’t orbit in the same plane as the sun and the Earth, eclipses are rare.
A partial solar eclipse, like the one on March 29, occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth but isn’t perfectly lined up. As a result, the sun will have a crescent shape, but it will never be fully obscured as it is during a total eclipse.
How long will the partial eclipse last?
The visible duration of the eclipse depends on the location and sunrise or sunset time. Globally, the eclipse will begin at 4:50 am ET (8:50AM UTC), with the maximum eclipse occurring at 6:47AM ET (10:47AM UTC), and the event ending at 8:43AM ET (12:43PM UTC). However, this doesn’t mean the entire partial eclipse will be almost four hours long in any given location, as this is just for the extreme edges of the event.
What’s the weather forecast along the viewing line?
It’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere, which generally means unfavorable weather for sky viewing. The Weather Channel’s senior digital meteorologist Chris Dolce said that cloud cover, rain, and snow may be likely in the northeastern United States during the eclipse, making it less ideal for viewing.
If it’s just a partial eclipse, do I need eye protection?
Any activity involving looking at the sun, even just 5 or 10 percent of the sun, requires eye protection. The sun can damage your retinas quickly, painlessly, and often irreversibly.
If you have solar viewers left from the 2024 eclipse and they are undamaged, they will work for this event as well. According to the American
Source Link
