Excitement is building in advance of a solar eclipse that will sweep across North America on August 21st. And the Director of the Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College says he is not surprised. Dave Leake told a gathering at the Westville Public Library over the weekend that much of southern Illinois will see a total eclipse. ‘’Here in central Illinois we’re not in the path of totality – which is only about 70 miles wide. But we will get to see 93-percent of the sun blocked out by the moon. And 93-percent is a lot, but we have to remember that 7-percent of the sun can blind you. So you still have to take precautions,’’ said Leake.
Leake says one way to see the eclipse is to use specially designed eclipse glasses. ‘’The other thing is building a pin-hole projector. And you can do that out of a shoebox. You cut a hole in one end of the shoebox and put either a sheet of thick paper or aluminum foil. Put just a thumb tack hole. And then on the other end of the shoebox – on the inside – you put a white card, and when you aim that at the sun you can project an image. So you’re looking at the card and not the sun,’’ said Leake.
And Leake warned against looking directly at the sun during the eclipse because that can blind you unless you have the specially designed glasses. In our area the eclipse is scheduled to block 93-percent of the sun around 1:20 p.m. on August 21st. And he explained what it is that causes the eclipse. ‘’Well, of course, for a solar eclipse they happen at new moon – and the moon is blocking out the sun. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun is, but it’s also 400 times closer to us. So it’s a neat little arrangement that the sun and the moon appear to be about the same size to our eyes here on the earth. So, when the moon cuts across the sun and blocks out its brilliance – that’s when we see the eclipse.’’
Leake adds it will be interesting to see how dark it gets here during the middle of the day on August 21st. But he says you should be able to easily see Jupiter and Venus during the eclipse.
[The meeting room at the Westville Public Library was packed Saturday with people interested in learning more about the up-coming solar eclipse. In the one photo above, some who attended the session stay afterwards to get tips from Leake on how to build their viewing box for the eclipse.]
