Partial Eclipse Of The Sun Here In Vermont/Other Areas Tomorrow

 If you're up at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning here in Vermont and have a good view of the eastern and northeastern horizon, you'll get to see a partial eclipse of the sun. 

Areas shaded in orange are where the tomorrow's annular
solar eclipse will be visible. The darkest shade of orange 
is where only the outer edges of the sun will be 
visible during the peak of the eclipse.

The eclipse will be ongoing locally when the sun rises at 5:08 a.m. It'll peak at around 5:35 a.m. with around 80 percent of the sun obscured by the moon.   It'll be all said and done by around 6:35 a.m.

Even if you're not looking at the skies, the coming of daylight after sunrise will seem a little more sluggish than usual early tomorrow as the moon blocks out part of the sun's June morning light over us. 

Since this is early, you won't see it if you're up against the west slopes of the Green Mountains, since the sun will still be behind the hills. 

On the bright side, if you do get a view, the forecast currently calls for partly to mostly clear skies, so that's good.

You don't want to look directly at the eclipse anyway. And wearing sunglasses won't cut it, either, even if you have super duper expensive "aren't I special" shades. If you have those eclipse goggles from the last eclipse in 2017, use those.  Or you can make a pinhole projector. 

This is an annular eclipse, so even in places where the moon does its best to cover the sun, you'll still see the edges of the sun.   That's why they're calling this a "ring of fire" eclipse. A lucky few people in northwestern Greenland, and parts of northern Russia and northeastern Canada will be able to see this. 

Not many people live in these areas, so they are in for a special treat.

A "ring of fire" eclipse happens when the moon is relatively far from the Earth, so it appears smaller and is unable to entirely block out the sun. A more dramatic total solar eclipse happens when the moon is a little closer to Earth. In those cases, as what parts of the U.S experience in 2017, near total darkness descends because the moon completely blocks out the sun. It's quite dramatic and exciting. 

The partial annular eclipse we'll be able to see tomorrow is practice for something spectacular. Another complete solar eclipse, like the one in 2017, is coming on April 8, 2024.   The path of totality in 2024 will pass directly over northwestern Vermont. It will be a once in a lifetime experience, for sure. 

Maybe tomorrow's partial thing isn't exactly a lifetime bucket list item, but it's still pretty cool. Except for those who like to sleep in for a couple hours past dawn.