The Four Corners region is preparing for a celebration of astronomical proportions.
The annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central and South America Saturday, Oct. 14 and “the path of annularity passes right through Farmington,” according to San Juan College Planetarium Director David Mayeux.
“This happened 11 years ago. The exact same type of eclipse passed over Farmington. That is amazing to me,” Mayeux said.
His office at the college has been receiving phone calls from people all over the country. “I’ve probably had a dozen or more phone calls from all over the U.S. People are wanting to know if I’m doing an observing event for the eclipse,” Mayeux said.
“People are calling because they want to come to the area and are asking if we are doing an event for the public and whether we have eclipse glasses available,” he said.
Mayeux will host an event with two telescopes in the courtyard outside the SJC Planetarium and the Connie Gotsch Theater.
“One telescope will have a solar filter and a digital eyepiece with a USB out that will go to the computer,” he said. “I will be able to capture the image on screen and share it via Zoom.”
For more information about this visit the San Juan College Planetarium Facebook page.
“I will have another telescope without a solar filter projecting onto light-colored surface. This way several people will be able to see it at once,” he said.
The eclipse will carve out a swath about 130 miles (210 kilometers) wide, starting in the North Pacific and entering the U.S. over Oregon around 8 a.m. Pacific time – 9 a.m. Mountain time. It will culminate in the ring of fire a little over an hour later.
From Oregon, the eclipse will head downward across Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas, encompassing slivers of Idaho, California, Arizona and Colorado before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico at Corpus Christi. It will take less than an hour for the flaming halo to traverse the U.S.
From there, the ring of fire will cross Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and, finally, Brazil before its grand finale over the Atlantic Ocean.
The entire eclipse – from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it's back to normal – will last 2½ to 3 hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion lasts from three to five minutes, depending on location.
“The eclipse will begin here at 9:11 a.m. with the maximum eclipse just before 10:34 a.m. The eclipse ends at 12:04 p.m.,” Mayeux said.
An annular eclipse “is named for the ring of fire, as it’s called. Latin for ring is annulus and that’s where it comes from,” Mayeux said. “It’s a new moon on Saturday, and the moon is at or very near its farthest point in its orbit around the Earth at its new phase.”
There will be a ring of the sun’s light around the moon’s silhouette, because “even at maximum eclipse the moon can’t quite cover the sun completely,” he said.
This happens because with “the farthest point in the moon’s orbit from Earth, called apagy, the moon’s disc is a tiny bit smaller than the sun,” he said.
In the U.S. alone, more than 6.5 million people live along the so-called path of annularity, and another 68 million live within 200 miles (322 kilometers), according to NASA's Alex Lockwood, a planetary scientist. “So a few hours’ short drive and you can have over 70 million witness this incredible celestial alignment,” she said.
At the same time, a crescent-shaped partial eclipse will be visible in every U.S. state, although just barely in Hawaii, provided the skies are clear. Canada, Central America and most of South America, also will see a partial eclipse. The closer to the ring of fire path, the bigger the bite the moon will appear to take out of the sun.
Despite the event being considered breathtaking to see, “It is never safe to look directly at the sun through a telescope without a proper solar filter,” Mayeux said. “You also should not stare at the sun once the eclipse has started – even with the naked eye.”
NASA recommends certified solar eclipse glasses, because sunglasses are not enough to prevent eye damage. Proper protection is needed throughout the entirety of the eclipse.
Solar eclipse glasses can be purchased this week at the San Juan College Bookstore and the cost is $1.50 plus tax. There also will be a limited amount of solar eclipse glasses given out at the Farmington Public Library, which is planning two events tied to the eclipse.
The first is at 6 p.m. Friday at the Farmington Public Library. There will be a panel discussion with astronomy experts talking about the eclipse. Mayeux will be on the panel, and Scott Michlin will moderate the event.
Then, at 9:11 a.m. Saturday, the library will host an eclipse watching event with free solar eclipse glasses while supplies last.
Another event with solar eclipse glasses will be the Animas River Jam, sponsored by the RiverReach Foundation. The event begins at 11 a.m. at Boyd Park, 700 S. Miller Avenue, but people are invited to come out early and enjoy the eclipse in the park. There will be live music, food, a pumpkin painting contest and child-friendly activities.
There are other options if you don’t have eclipse glasses. You can make a pinhole projector, which allows you to watch the eclipse indirectly. Most pinhole projectors are made using cereal boxes.
If you plan to take photos event with a cellphone, there needs to be solar filters mounted at the front end of the lenses.
