Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
The last time a solar eclipse was visible in Pocahontas County was August 21, 2017. Thousands of enthusiasts gathered at the Green Bank Observatory for activities and a viewing party with telescopes and special eclipse glasses.
The GBO will once again hold a viewing party for the upcoming eclipse Monday, April 8.
GBO STEM educator Sarah Olivera explained that there will be lots of activities for people to enjoy, in addition to the actual eclipse.
“We’ll have UV bracelet making and pinhole project making,” she said. “People can make projects to look at the eclipse a different way if they don’t want to look at it directly through glasses. Then we’ll have this really fun bubble activity that we just like doing where kids can make images of the sun.”
The activities will begin at 1 p.m. at the science center. At 2 p.m., the crowd will move outdoors for the viewing.
“We’ll be giving out eclipse glasses for free for people on the day of,” Olivera said. “I think we have two thousand saved up. In 2017, we purchased five hundred and then we ended up with two thousand people showing up. People were great about sharing, but we wanted to make sure we had more than we needed this time around since there won’t be another eclipse in the U.S. for twenty years.”
Along with the activities and the viewing party, Olivera said the auditorium will be open and have the NASA livestream playing on the screen. A 20-meter telescope onsite will also be pointed at the sun during the eclipse and that will be live streaming, as well.
The eclipse will start right around 2 p.m., reach it’s maximum at 3:16 p.m. and it will all be over around 4:30 p.m.
Eye Safety for Total Solar Eclipses
NASA
You can make your own eclipse projector using a cardboard box, a white sheet of paper, tape, scissors, and aluminum foil. With the Sun behind you, sunlight will stream through a pinhole punched into aluminum foil taped over a hole in one side of the box.
During the partial phases of a solar eclipse, this will project a crescent Sun onto a white sheet of paper taped to the inside of the box. Look into the box through another hole cut into the box to see the projected image.
Here are some important safety guidelines to follow during a total solar eclipse.
• View the Sun through eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer during the partial eclipse phases before and after totality.
• You can view the eclipse directly without proper eye protection only when the Moon completely obscures the Sun’s bright face – during the brief and spectacular period known as totality. (You’ll know it’s safe when you can no longer see any part of the Sun through eclipse glasses or a solar viewer.)
• As soon as you see even a little bit of the bright Sun reappear after totality, immediately put your eclipse glasses back on or use a handheld solar viewer to look at the Sun.
Do NOT use eclipse glasses or handheld viewers with cameras, binoculars, or telescopes. Those require different types of solar filters. When viewing a partial or annular eclipse through cameras, binoculars, or telescopes equipped with proper solar filters, you do not need to wear eclipse glasses. (The solar filters do the same job as the eclipse glasses to protect your eyes.)
Seek expert advice from an astronomer before using a solar filter with a camera, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device. Note that solar filters must be attached to the front of any telescope, binoculars, camera lens, or other optics.
