Eclipses
Annular eclipse Saturday, October 14, 2023 from about 10:23 am - 1:29 pm
Total eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024 from about 12:21 pm - 3:01 pm; totality from 1:39 - 1:43 pm
Eye Safety
First and foremost, you must never look at the sun with your naked eye. Without proper eye protection, looking at the sun can result in retinal burns. This eye injury can be a temporary or permanent injury and can occur with no pain. It may be hours or days before you experience the symptoms of this injury.
To protect your eyes and the eyes of eclipse spectators around you, remind everyone not to look up at the sun without eclipse glasses or eclipse viewers that offer solar filters to protect their eyes. You should consider getting some eclipse viewers as soon as possible, they will be in high demand soon! Please be sure you purchase them from a reputable source. The American Astronomical Society maintains a list of certified manufacturers and distributors. Find the list here. Map from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
(Source: McDonald Observatory email, 10/10/23)
Eclipse Interactive Maps
These interactive maps allow you to click on any place to find out what the location will experience on October 14 for the Annular Eclipse or on April 8 for the Total Solar Eclipse. A lot of information will pop up, so let’s break it down. Look at the image (a location near Odessa on 10/14/23) and explanations below:
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The duration of the event: at this location, viewers will experience 4 minutes and 56.3 seconds of annularity.
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The percentage of the sun that will be covered: in this location, viewers will witness the sun covered 89.834% by the moon.
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Start of the eclipse: in this location, the moon will be in position to start eclipsing the sun at 15:18:26.2 Universal Time (UT) or 10:18am (subtract 5 hours from Universal Time for Central Time).
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The moment of maximum eclipse: At this time, the moon is most centered in front of the sun. This location will see that at 16:45 UT, or 11:45 am Central Time.
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End of eclipse: this is the moment the moon will no longer be in front of the sun, not even a little. This location will experience the end of the eclipse at 18:21 UT or 1:21 pm CT.
Throughout this entire event solar glasses or solar viewers will be required.
Do NOT look up at the sun with your naked eye.
If you are hoping to photograph the sun or view it with a telescope, solar filters are REQUIRED. Find information about solar filters for cameras, telescopes, and other devices here.
(Source: McDonald Observatory email, 10/06/23)
Types of Eclipses
There are 4 types of solar eclipses: partial eclipse, total eclipse, annular eclipse, and hybrid eclipse. All eclipses are caused by shadows. Shadows occur when an object blocks a light source. For example, your hand in front of a flashlight making shadow puppets on the wall or a tree blocking sunlight and casting shadows on the ground. In the case of a solar eclipse, our moon blocks light from the sun.
Source: McDonald Observatory email, 10/03/23
