Get ready for your last chance to see an eclipse this year: North America to get prime view of Thursday's partial eclipse
North America is set to see its fourth and final eclipse of the year on Thursday.
On Thursday, most of North America will have prime viewing of a partial solar eclipse.
The best views will be in the U.S. Northwest and northern Canada, especially Prince of Wales Island - although New England and the Canadian Maritime provinces will miss out.
The eclipse will unfold slowly following its start near the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia on thursday.
In the eastern half of the U.S., the eclipse will occur near sunset.
The new moon will hide part of the sun from view.
The eclipse will unfold slowly following its start near the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia.
Sky gazers are urged to protect their eyes with special filtered glasses.
Regular sunglasses are not good enough.
This makes for two solar and two lunar eclipses this year.
'Throughout history, total eclipses, in which the entire sun is blocked from view, have offered scientists the chance to see the faint light of the sun's atmosphere called the corona, without its being overwhelmed by the sun itself,' Nasa said.
Who will see it: The best views will be in the U.S. Northwest and northern Canada, especially Prince of Wales Island - although New England and the Canadian Maritime provinces will miss out.In the eastern half of the U.S., the eclipse will occur near sunset.
'Total eclipses provide views of that atmosphere, which we otherwise can only get with specialized telescopes – both in space and on the ground -- that block out the bright light of the sun.
'As a partial eclipse, the Oct. 23 eclipse is of less scientific interest, but it still makes for a great view!'
Jay Pasachoff, a professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and Chair of the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Eclipses, said 'This eclipse that will have the moon entirely covering the sun in a 60-mile-wide band across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina, with 80% or more of the sun covered from most of the continental U.S.'
However, he warned caution when viewing.
'The sun is so bright that even through ordinary sunglasses you can damage your eyes if you stare at it.
'The special solar filters that are available, which are made of a black polymer, block out all but about a thousandth of a per cent of the sun's brightness, while ordinary sunglasses would dim the sun by only a relatively small bit even in the visible while allowing almost all the hazardous infrared to come through.'
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