Intersection

What you need to know about experiencing the solar eclipse

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Blacked-out sun, won’t you come?
Photo: Mikayla Whitmore

It has come to pass: Those who worship the sun beyond their pool will want to look up between 9 a.m. and noon on Monday, August 21, when the moon will pass between the Earth and the sun and cause the first total solar eclipse in North America since 1979. That means the sun and its corona (or atmosphere) will be completely blocked.

The caveat: Nevada doesn’t sit in the “path of totality,” which cuts an east-to-west swath across the United States and is only 70 miles wide, so just 72 percent of the sun will be covered above Las Vegas. “What you’re gonna see is a dark outline of the moon take a bite out of the sun,” says Andrew Kerr, manager of the College of Southern Nevada Planetarium. Which also means we won’t see the sky dim or the temperature drop to any noticeable effect.

View it without torching your corneas: Buy a pair of solar viewer goggles—a typical pair looks like old-school 3D glasses—at your local convenience store, grocer or big box (i.e. Lowe’s), but make sure they’re authorized (sample brands: American Paper Optics, Explore Scientific, TSE 17). Also: Some local libraries are giving away pairs while supplies last.

Why we seem so stoked about it: Besides eclipses being infrequent and visually impressive scientific phenomena, this one is “the all-American eclipse,” says Kerr. “The only place totality touches is U.S. soil. And so there’s nationalistic pride.”

Where to see it: Anywhere. Or head over to the Planetarium, where the offerings include telescopes and glasses for safe viewing, live streams from areas experiencing totality and a 10-minute planetarium show about the sun. And it won’t be the only eclipse gathering in town. “It’s something that happens on rare enough an occasion that when it does, it’s special,” Kerr says. “So you want to do something special with it and share it with people you know.”

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