CLOUDS PERMITTING, NORTH Olympic Peninsula residents will get a glimpse of a partial solar eclipse Thursday afternoon.
A partial eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, blocking some of the sun’s light.
The moon will gradually cut away at the sun until about half the sun is chopped out and appears crescent-shaped.
The eclipse will begin at 1:34 p.m.
Maximum eclipse is at 2:59 p.m., when almost 52 percent of the sun’s face will be covered.
The eclipse ends at 4:18 p.m., about two hours before the sun sets.
Weather forecasters are predicting cloudy conditions, with rain in some areas.
Don’t be foolish!
But even with heavy cloud cover, don’t try to observe any part of Thursday’s partial eclipse without protection.
You can easily wind up with permanent eye damage or blindness.
Sunglasses won’t work. If you want to look at the eclipsed sun, NASA says wear welder’s goggles rated 14 or higher.
In some ways, a partial eclipse is the most dangerous to observe.
People naturally want to look at it, and this defeats our normal reflex to look away from the sun.
The safest way to view a solar eclipse is by using a pinhole in a piece of cardboard to project the sun.
Punch a hole a couple of millimeters in diameter in the middle of the cardboard and tape it against a west-facing window.
This will project an image of the eclipsed sun on a wall that’s opposite.
Do not use binoculars or a telescope to view the sun unless you have a properly designed solar filter.
You can watch the partial eclipse on your computer. It will be live-streamed from various locations.
The Coca-Cola Space Science Center is among the sites with a webcast.
To see it, visit http://www.ccssc.org/webcast.html beginning at 2 p.m.
