Solar Eclipse 2017 Date: Rare Astronomical Event Visible in US on Aug. 21
Few astronomical phenomena are as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, as day turns to night for a few moments along a narrow band across the United States on Aug. 21. The rare event, now dubbed the Great American Total Solar Eclipse, will be visible from Oregon to South Carolina.
As always, viewers are advised to never look at the sun without proper eye protection. Even a few seconds of exposure can be enough to cause eye damage, even when the sun is being partially covered by the moon in transit.
A total eclipse being visible at all is a lucky coincidence of the moon being at just the right size and distance to almost completely cover the sun. That said, the moment that the two lines up from the earth's point of view happens every 18 months. While partial eclipses occur multiple times in a year on average, a total solar eclipse is a rare event in comparison.
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The highlight of the astronomical event is the moment when the sun's corona becomes visible. At the moment of totality, the normally hidden outer atmosphere of the sun is revealed as streams and ribbons of light weaving about across the sky, according to Space.
The areas where this rare event can be seen stretches in a narrow band, about 70 miles or 113 kilometers wide from Oregon to South Carolina.
In between these points, the moon's shadow will pass through Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, as can be seen in this map from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA.
For observers right in the middle of the moon's shadow, the total solar eclipse could last as long as two minutes and 40 seconds. This length of time decreases the farther one is from the center of the path of the eclipse.
The event in the U.S. is forecasted to start at 9:06 a.m. PDT in Madras, Oregon up to later at 1:03 p.m. EDT in Columbia, South Carolina, as the moon's shadow travels from west to east.
