So a special kind of solar eclipse is going to happen tomorrow making a ring of fire in the sky. It’ll only be visible in a few places so we’re here to help you figure out if you can see it in person or not. People of Canada, Greenland, the Arctic, and Russia will be lucky enough to view the event in person. People say that you shouldn’t look at an eclipse directly so people of eastern North America, most of Europe, Mongolia, and China will be able to see a partial eclipse.
By the way, looking at an eclipse direct will damage your eyes so you better be careful. Use appropriate solar glasses or telescopes and binoculars with the right filters. The eclipse will last about 2 hours in each location we’ve discussed with total visibility for a few minutes around 1 hour into the event. The longest duration of the ring of fire will be along the northwestern coast of Greenland where the eclipse will last for about 3 minutes and 51 seconds.
As usual, NASA was nice enough to make an interactive map with the timings with a path showing where the maximum amount of sun will be covered. If you are able to understand the map, you can plan your viewing accordingly. Just wish NASA could have made it a little beginner-friendly. Also don’t go using sunglasses instead of solar glasses, no matter how dark they are because they just won’t protect your eyes.
Even directly looking at the Sun with a telescope hurts a lot and has burned some viewers before so an appropriate filter is a must.
Now if you can’t be in any of the places mentioned above then don’t worry, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich in London is planning to do a live stream of the event and view a partial eclipse. That coupled with their expert commentary should tide your curiosity somewhat. You can visit their channel by following this link.
Alternatively, you can also check the live stream by Virtual Telescope that will show the eclipse as it happens by following this link. To be honest, I’ve never seen an eclipse in person so I don’t really think it’s a big deal if you can’t watch it in person. Good thing live streams are good enough that you can watch pretty much anything in a good enough quality.