Courtesy of www.Buffaloeclipse.org
On April 8, 2024, the central part of the moon’s shadow (the umbra) will pass over Buffalo bringing Western New York a total solar eclipse. Each month, the moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth, and the changing angle of sunlight on the moon causes the waxing and waning of the moon’s phases. At new moon, it is not visible because the side facing Earth is not lit by the sun, but every 6 months, when alignment is perfect, the moon passes directly in front of the sun.
While the sun is much larger than the moon, the two bodies are at just the right distances to make them appear the same size in the sky, so the bright yellow disk of the sun (the photosphere) can be blocked to reveal the sun’s atmosphere (the corona). When this happens a beautiful ring of light appears, the stars are visible in in midday, birds stop chirping thinking it is nighttime, and people experience a few minutes of eerie darkness called totality in the middle of the day. During the eclipse, the moon’s shadow moves southwest toward the northeast. Locally, the partial eclipse will begin around 2:00 pm, with totality at about 3:15 pm, and the partial eclipse ending about 4:30 pm.
According to Dr. Ephraim Atwal, of Atwal Eyecare, it is imperative you take precautions in how you the eclipse during totality. He says, “You must wear ISO approved solar glasses. Do not look at the eclipse with the naked eye or even sunglasses, because you risk permanent damage to your retina. Even taking a photo or video could damage your phone without the proper filter.”
Let’s all enjoy the wonder of the eclipse in Western New York safely on April 8th.
Learn more and where to best view the eclipse at www.buffaloeclipse.org.
