Upstate New Yorkers should have a good view of Thursday morning’s partial solar eclipse.
About 77% of the sun will be hidden by the moon at the peak of the eclipse, which will be around 5:40 a.m. in the north of the state. That’s about 15 minutes after the sun rises, so it’s called a “sunrise eclipse.” It will end at 6:30 am
The weather forecast looks promising: Only about 15% of the sky is likely to be covered by clouds at dawn Thursday in most cities in the north of the state, according to forecasts from the National Weather Service.
CAUTION: Never look at an eclipse, even a partial one, without special safety glasses or the sun’s rays could permanently damage your eyes. If you still had your goggles left over from the 2017 solar eclipse, space.com says they continue to offer protection as long as they are not scratched or damaged. If so, throw them away.
Experts say you should only buy glasses that say they are “ISO” certified. This means that they meet the special criteria for viewing the sun during an eclipse and have undergone safety testing.
If you don’t have glasses, you can build a pinhole camera that projects the eclipse onto a light surface.
The sun will be very low in the sky when the eclipse occurs, so you will need to find a location that has a clear view of the eastern horizon. Your best option is a hill or a tall building.
While we will see a big bite of the sun, Canadians near Hudson Bay will experience a rare “ring of fire”, when the sun shines in a ring around the dark moon. That is known as an annular eclipse rather than a total eclipse, in which the sun’s rays are completely blocked.
Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, partially or completely blocking the sun’s rays. The last total solar eclipse in the United States was in 2017, when a narrow swath of the country from the west coast to the east coast saw the sun disappear completely behind the moon for two minutes or more.
The next total solar eclipse for the US will be on April 8, 2024. The path of totality, where the sun is completely hidden by the moon for several minutes, will cross much of upstate New York. Buffalo, in the center of the road, will see a total eclipse for almost four minutes. Syracuse will see the whole for a minute and a half.
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