The countdown to the total solar eclipse is on, with thousands of Californians headed to places like Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming to see the skies go totally dark during the middle of the day, for only about two minutes. Local astronomer Don Machholz and his wife are headed to Idaho for Monday’s big event. Machholz says there’s more to see when it truly is a ‘total’ eclipse…
That will not be the case in Nevada County. Machholz says you’ll notice a significant portion of the sun disappear for a few minutes, but it won’t get very dark…
By 11:40, the eclipse will be over. Machholz cautions that you should not look directly at the sun unless you have special glasses. If those aren’t available, you can poke a small hole in a piece of paper and project the image of the sun onto another piece of paper. If you are standing near a tree, the leaves will project images of the partial sun onto the ground. Total solar eclipses aren’t really that rare–they happen about every two years or so, but this is the first one that has crossed over the United States in 99 years (since 1918).
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