ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — If you’ve seen maps showing the path of the April 8 solar eclipse, you might think that we’ll see nothing here in Athens County. The line of totality — where the moon will completely block the sun — runs northeast from Cincinnati to Cleveland in a 124-mile-wide band.
Never fear, however: Athens County still will get a spectacular view (and if it’s cloudy, it will still be cool).
The extent of an eclipse is measured by magnitude, or the percentage of the sun’s area that is covered by the moon. Monday’s eclipse in Athens will have a magnitude of .97 — meaning that only 3% of the sun will remain visible at the height of the eclipse.
“It’ll get down to a very, very thin crescent,” said Doug Clowe, professor and director of the Astrophysics Institute at Ohio University. The 2017 eclipse “only got down to the high 70s or low 80s” in magnitude, Clowe said.
Still, even looking directly at that tiny crescent isn’t safe, Clowe warned. “Even that little sliver is still way too bright for your eyes,” he said.
Although the visible light from the sun will be diminished, ultraviolet and infrared light will remain, Clowe said. The brightness of visible light deters us from looking directly at the sun, but our eyes don’t detect ultraviolet or infrared light — so we’re unaware that they’re affecting our sight.
“The ultraviolet light will basically cause a sunburn on the back of your eye,” Clowe said. The infrared light will heat the eye, but because our eyes don’t have heat sensors, “you’ll eventually overheat your eye and you won’t know this until your eye starts cooking and the pain kicks in. And by that point it’s too late.”
Eclipse glasses filter UV and infrared light, protecting your eyes from damage … if they’re made to correct specifications. (The American Astronomical Society published a list of reputable manufacturers of eclipse glasses.) In addition to checking the manufacturer, Clowe recommends inspecting the lenses for holes or scratches.
To use eclipse glasses safely, “You want to put them on while looking at the horizon and make sure you see nothing,” Clowe said. “If you see anything at all, then there’s something wrong. Only then should you try to find the sun.”
Even with glasses, it’s not safe to stare at the eclipse, Clowe said. “Put them on, go up, look for five to 10 seconds, then look away and take them off. Repeat that again five or 10 minutes later.” An eclipse is “a slow process — the sun doesn’t change that much,” he added. “It’s not like something dramatic is suddenly going to happen.”
Other safe ways to view the eclipse are to make a pinhole projector from a cardboard box or use “something that’s made up of tiny little mirrors” like a disco ball or sequined cloth to reflect the light onto the ground or a sheet of paper. “You’ll have these nice images of the sun,” Clowe said.
For the ultimate in no-tech viewing, look for a tree with leaves. “I know it’s a little bit challenging right now, but there are some,” Clowe said. Normally, sun shining through leaves creates patches of light on the ground. During an eclipse, however, those irregular patches of light become small crescents.
“It is this absolutely bizarre-looking thing,” he said.
Another phenomenon Clowe described is the moon’s shadow crossing the ground. If you’re watching the ellipse from high ground with open space, look to the southwest. “It’s going to look like this giant black wall closing in on you,” he said.
The sight can be unnerving, even for scientists, he said. A group of professional astronomers watching an eclipse in Scotland “were all up there, staring at the top of this very, very steep hill, and you had panic reactions from about half of them,” Clowe said. “Everyone knew exactly what it was, but the animal parts of their minds said, ‘That’s dangerous’ and took over.”
Although they aren’t rare — there’s a total eclipse “somewhere on Earth every 18 months,” Clowe said — being in the path of one is.
“The shadow of the moon is only about 100 miles wide,” he said. “And therefore, in every eclipse, only a small fraction of the Earth’s surface is covered.”
That makes an eclipse a uniquely profound experience.
“As totality approaches and starts, you have people screaming and then they sort of stop,” Clowe said. “Within about 10 seconds, they just stop and are staring, right, because it’s so unlike anything that they’ve ever, ever seen before.”
The next total solar eclipse to cross Ohio will occur on September 14, 2099. An eclipse in August 2045 will follow roughly the same path as the 2017 eclipse that was visible from Athens County.
