ECLIPSE

continued from page 2 not safe for looking directly at the sun. In April 2024, there will be less than 4:28 in western Arkansas.

During the presentation, Dr. G showed an image of telescopes. The science club is hoping to use the telescopes for the total eclipse.

“Dr. Timmerman, who was here as an instructor, had those telescopes and he wanted us to use them. These are the sophisticated ones. These are huge, they have all the necessary equipment and accessories needed. These would be more scientific than if you order from somewhere — maybe Amazon or Walmart — [most] would be smaller and I could not guarantee they would be verified scientifically.”

There are necessary precautions when looking at the eclipse through a telescope. “They would need the solar filter before they are able to view anything through the telescope. Telescopes are not for seeing the sun or any bright lights. They are only for the nighttime sky: stars, maybe the galaxies, the moon or planets. You can see those easily.

“For the sun, the telescope has lenses it concentrates the light through the lenses so the eyes could be damaged. You have to be careful and should put the verified solar filter on them. You can’t just buy a solar filter and take a risk. It has to be verified.”

Verified filters for solar eclipse glasses are ISO 123122, which supersede earlier national and regional standards. There is at present no international standard for optical solar filters, but the ISO-12312-2 should be safe for use with optics as long as the user closely follows the instructions.

The science club is not thinking of having a feed from the telescopes to a video screen or recording device, but Dr. G said it is a possibility. The club will mainly be observing the eclipse just as a hobby and something fun.

For those people wanting to photo- graph the eclipse, beyond the safety of one’s eyesight, there is also the safety of the camera.

“Most of the camera lenses do not tolerate the high-intensity light. It could damage the camera.” Once again, a filter would be a wise precaution.

Other presentations

In the same partnership with OMRL and UARM, NASA certified ambassador Kathy Rusert did presentations at the area’s public schools for lower elementary and at Montgomery County Library. She did presentations at Louise Durham, Holly Harshman, Acorn, Oden, and Cossatot River Primary. Montgomery County Library and Polk County Library are branches of the Ouachita Mountains Regional Library.

To prepare for western Arkansas’ total eclipse on Apr. 8, 2024, OMRL and the UARM’s Lifelong Learning will hold additional presentations in the spring. Watch for details in the coming months.

Viewing alternatives

If you do not have solar eclipse glasses or plan on making a pinhole projector from household items such as a cereal or shoe box, and other miscellaneous items (see “How to Make a Box Pinhole Projector” on the NASA Goddard YouTube page) for the Oct. 14 eclipse, you have another option. NASA will host live coverage starting at 11:30 a.m. EDT. live on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app. NASA also will stream the broadcast live on its Facebook, X, and YouTube social media accounts.

According to the handout during Dr. G’s presentation, which differs slightly from the information previously mentioned, the partial eclipse should begin at approximately 10:26 a.m. CDT, reach its maximum of 71% coverage, known as its annularity, around 11:55 a.m. and lasts between one to five minutes. The eclipse will be fully over by 1:30 p.m. for western Arkansas.

At press time on Tuesday morning, the weather forecast for the annular eclipse reveals it will be somewhere probably in the low-to-mid-60s, a few clouds early on with a 20% chance of rain, then becoming mostly sunny.

The United States will not experience another total solar eclipse until Aug. 23, 2044.

To find out more about the annular eclipse, visit https://solarsystem.nasa. gov/eclipses/2023/oct-14-annular/ where-when/.

To find out more about the total eclipse, visit https://solarsystem.nasa. gov/eclipses/2024/apr-8-total/overview/ or https://visitmena.com/events/ solar-eclipse-festival/.