Get glasses to focus on eclipse
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
People from as far as Minot and beyond will be making their way to Underwood for the solar eclipse this Monday, Aug. 21, as they don pairs of specially-made glasses that will protect their eyes during the eclipse.
Dubbed “The Great American Eclipse,” a swath of the contiguous United States will have a total solar eclipse in which 100 percent of the sun’s light (the path of totality) will be obscured by the moon and/or its shadow. Most of the country will see only a partial eclipse, in which the moon travels between the earth and the sun, blocking the sun’s light from reaching the earth. This area of the country should have about a 90 percent eclipse, so almost complete obscurity of the sun as the moon passes by it.
The last total solar eclipse viewed from contiguous United States was on Feb. 26, 1979, when the path passed through the northwestern U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and parts of Canada.
The next solar eclipse that will be visible to the United States will be in 2024, so Harmony Higbie, Underwood Librarian, is pretty excited about the eclipse that is set to happen this Monday.
The library has already had one lesson on the eclipse, and this Monday, Roger Britton, former Underwood science teacher, will be giving a brief overview of what people can expect to see during the eclipse.
“The most we’ll be able to see will be around 12:45 in the afternoon,” said Higbie. “Then it will start going down from there.”
