Today, the sky will darken ominously!

Some tips on the coming solar eclipse

Last updated 8/21/2017 at 7:39am

NPS education specialist Janice Elvidge lets people look through a specially filtered telescope at the sun at North Dam Park during the 2015 Harvest Festival. - Scott Hunter photo

With the impending solar eclipse very close, it's nice to know the science of what is happening; humanity doesn't react to the old mythologies that surrounded past solar or lunar eclipse events. The scientific explanation of what we see has brought us beyond the myths.

Many cultures have explained eclipses - solar or lunar - as animals consuming either the sun or the moon, or that demons are the culprits. The Viking sky wolves are a favorite of mine. My Viking ancestors saw a pair of wolves in the sky chasing the sun or the moon. When a wolf caught either of the bright orbs, an eclipse was the result. Here in the Northwest, historically, the people of the Kwakiutl tribe, on the western coast of Canada, believed that the mouth of heaven consumed either the sun or moon during an eclipse.

Eclipses were and are a disruption of the established order, personal or otherwise. Today, we all depend on the movement of the sun every day and any disruption upsets our timing. On Monday, Aug. 21, we will witness a disruption.

The moon will start moving between us and the sun at 9:11 a.m. locally. At 10:25 a.m. our personal timing will be fully disrupted. At that time, we will experience a solar eclipse with 89.9 percent of the sun obscured here in the Coulee. It will be over by 11:44 a.m. With that much of the sun obscured, you may need your headlights to drive around.

Now for the safety message: Don't look directly at the sun without proper eye protection, eclipse or not! There are international standards established for direct viewing of the sun - eclipse or not. So, what can you use to view the sun during this event? Here are some specific recommendations from the folks at NASA:

"The Sun can be viewed directly only when using filters specifically designed for this purpose. Such filters usually have a thin layer of aluminum, chromium or silver deposited on their surfaces that attenuates ultraviolet, visible, and infrared energy. One of the most widely available filters for safe solar viewing is a Number 14 welder's glass, available through welding supply outlets. More recently, Aluminized Mylar has become a popular, inexpensive alternative. Mylar can easily be cut with scissors and adapted to any kind of box or viewing device."

Here is an online map of the path of the 2017 Solar Eclipse. You can use it to find the exact timing of the eclipse anywhere.

Solar Eclipse Viewing Programs to be presented at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area

To celebrate this rare event, which last occurred in 1918, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area will host three Eclipse Viewing Programs, to which the public is invited.

Visitors may view the eclipse through solar telescopes and receive a free pair of commemorative solar glasses. Children can earn their Junior Ranger badge by completing a special eclipse program or create their own solar eclipse to take home.

Rangers and volunteers from Lake Roosevelt will also be taking part in citizen science to help expand our understanding of the sun and how solar eclipses affect the Earth.

The Eclipse Viewing Programs will be located at:

• Crescent Bay in Grand Coulee – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For information contact: (509) 754-7843

• Fort Spokane Visitor Center (23 miles north of Davenport, WA) – 9 a.m. to 1p.m.

For information contact: (509) 754-7893

• Libraries of Stevens County - Kettle Falls Branch 605 Meyers Street – 9:45 to 11:30 a.m.

or information contact: (509) 738-6817

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Don't look at the eclipse without the right protection

By Jacob Wagner

The upcoming eclipse is a rare sight to see, but you need to use your sense when you see it, using certified solar viewing glasses to prevent losing your ability to see altogether.

The Grand Coulee area will experience a partial eclipse on Monday, in which the moon will cover almost 90 percent of the sun for approximately two minutes. The peak of the eclipse will happen around 10:25 a.m.

The National Park Service will provide free solar glasses to view the eclipse at Crescent Bay Lake from 9-1 p.m. The glasses are necessary because staring at the eclipse, or the sun in general, is harmful for our eyes, even with regular sunglasses on, because of the harmful ultraviolet light that emanates from the sun, which essentially sunburns the eye.

“Your body can’t filter the UV and the sun’s radiation,” said Galen Schmidt, a doctor of optometry at Coulee Vision Center in Grand Coulee. “It will burn a hole in the retina, in the central maculas.”

Schmidt said he had only seen cases of that a couple times. One woman had great side vision, he noted, but her central vision was lost from looking at the sun too much.

Looking at an eclipse is even more dangerous than looking at the sun normally, according to an article on http://www.sciencing.com.

“The darkness that accompanies an eclipse can override the natural tendency to squint and avert the eyes, increasing the amount of ultraviolet radiation landing on the retina and making it more likely that you’ll sustain eye damage,” explained author Chris Deziel. “Your eyes can sustain damage even if only a small sliver of the sun is visible. The cornea focuses sunlight on the retina and scorches it, and because the retina has no pain receptors, you don’t know the damage has been done until it’s too late.”

Damage to the eyes can include:

• Permanent blindness

• Macular degeneration (deterioration of vision)

• Solar retinitis (blurry vision from sun exposure that usual resolves in 3-6 months)

• Corneal dystrophies (stuff accumulating on the clear outer layer of the eye).

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