A rare annular eclipse will take place Saturday morning. LSU Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Natalie Hinkel said this type of eclipse happens when the moon is further from Earth, and it obscures only part of the sun. She said Louisiana will only have a partial eclipse and won’t get the full effect of the Ring of Fire.
“And so that means that we’ll still be able to see some of the sun, we won’t be able to see that really cool Ring of Fire, but a lot of the sun will be covered,” said Hinkel.
In Louisiana, the eclipse will be visible from 10:30 AM until 1:30 PM.
Never look directly at an eclipse. If you don’t have solar glasses, which are different from regular sunglasses, or time to make a pinhole camera Hinkel said grab a colander from the kitchen. The small holes will act as a lens…
“But if you sort of point it towards the ground and you look down at the ground you can see the light from the sun, go through it, and then you can actually watch as the shadow of the moon moves across it,” said Hinkel.
The word annular is Latin for ring.
Hinkel said today we know why and how eclipses happen but before humans were frightened by them.
“Two thousand years ago when people didn’t really understand all of the geometry, the planets, the sun, and everything, they would think the gods are angry with them during an eclipse. It would stop everything,” said Hinkel.
The next total eclipse that will be visible in North America will be April 8th. Another will not be visible in the United States until 2044.
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