Not a real eclipse - Made in Adobe Illustrator by Alex Amiot
Heads up Fargo, here comes a solar eclipse.
If you’re in town (that is, anywhere west of the Appalachians) this weekend, grab your solar-filter glasses and look to the west.
No one gets a total eclipse this time, not even the folks within the blue lines on the map below. The moon’s elliptical orbit has taken it pretty far from earth, making this Sunday’s eclipse is an annular one, with the moon appearing to be 6% smaller than Sun.
If you want to read a pleasing piece about this event from someone who actually knows about extraterrestrial astronomic happenings, read this post from Astro Bob.
Fargo/Moorhead will see the moon covering two-thirds of the sun shortly after 8pm on Sunday, May 21, 2012. The date on the NASA/Google map indicates May 21 because the eclipse will occur after midnight, Universal Time (UT).
–> Astro Bob tells it like it is
–> Eclipse Calculator and image from timeanddate.com
–> AccuWeather’s article and simplified USA eclipse map (Eastern Seaboard = No Eclipse)
–> Examiner.com talks about May and June eclipses and the upcoming Venus transit
–> NASA is the eclipse predicting over-achiever
5/20/12 Annular Eclipse Info with Fargo, ND specifics (66% max eclipse). I added the Fargo sidebar on the left. Credit: NASA
Thanks for the heads up! I wonder where I could get my hands on a welding helmet. I used my dad’s about 30 years ago to see a total eclipse. It was awesome.
I bet Neil B. has a couple extra he could spare. Good idea!
It was still neat to watch. Without the goggles you would never know it happened.
I enjoyed it too. I’ll have to get some solar lenses for the upcoming 2014 eclipse.