On April 8, around 3:15 p.m., Northeast Ohio will experience a total solar eclipse, where the moon will completely cover the sun and reveal the corona, the sun’s atmosphere.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, this will be the first total eclipse in Ohio since 1806, and the next is predicted for 2099. You could say this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the area.
Alex Clevinger, doctoral student and teaching assistant in Kent State University’s Department of Physics, is most excited about the optical illusion that will occur during the total eclipse.
“Our eclipses are so rare, but they're actually because the moon and the sun appear to be about the same size in the sky,” Clevinger said. “When you look up in the sky, the moon and the sun are about the same size which is pretty unusual. The Earth has a pretty big moon. The moon is about a fifth of the size of the Earth.”
To view the optical illusion of the eclipse, you must wear specific eyewear. According to NASA, regular UV glasses cannot protect your eyes from the rays of the sun, and neither can camera, binocular, or telescope lenses.
Instead, wear “safe solar viewers” that comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard, NASA insists.
During the total eclipse, expect some time of twilight as the moon covers the sun, but Kent isn’t in the direct total coverage area, Clevinger said.
“I wouldn't say the middle of the night darkness, but maybe more than twilight, towards sunset,” Clevinger said, “It's not going to be completely dark because we're still going to be seeing the corona of the sun.”
Clevinger’s favorite part of eclipses is the history behind them. He mentioned both Ancient Greece and a Concorde Jet.
According to National Geographic, in 1973, scientists boarded a jet and chased an eclipse in Africa as the moon’s shadow cast itself across the continent, giving them 74 minutes of totality.
In "Finding Our Place in the Cosmos: From Galileo to Sagan and Beyond" from the Library of Congress, there is the story of Aristarchus of Samos, a Greek astronomer who determined lunar eclipses were key to understanding and documenting Earth’s shape in the 3rd century, B.C.
Veronica Dexheimer, associate professor and director of Center for Nuclear Research in the Department of Physics noted these fun facts from NASA:
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