2017 Solar Eclipse

2017 Total Solar Eclipse

animation of the moon's shadow moving across North America

What is a Total Solar Eclipse?

According to NASA a total solar eclipse is moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks all or part of the sun for up to about three hours, from beginning to end, as viewed from a given location. For this eclipse, the longest period when the moon completely blocks the sun from any given location along the path will be about two minutes and 40 seconds. The last time the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979.

Eclipse Safety

Looking directly at the sun is UNSAFE except when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality.

The only safe way to look directly at the partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses” or hand-held solar viewers. Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are NOT SAFE for looking at the sun.

To date four manufacturers have certified that their eclipse glasses meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard. These are Rainbow Symphony, American Paper Optics, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17.

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