August 21 around 10:00 a.m. Utahns will experience twilight conditions and a drop in temperature due to the moon casting a shadow over the sun.
A solar eclipse is an event not to be missed, however James Coburn from the USU observatory said looking at the eclipse without proper eye protection can be very dangerous.
“There are lots of things on the internet saying you can use old negatives or multiple sunglasses and most of those things aren’t safe," Coburn said. "Another one is people think, ‘I’ve got a welding helmet so I will just use that’. Well, a welding helmet was made for welding it wasn’t made for looking at the sun. The best thing to do is get some of theseeclipse glasses or use the pin-hole method.”
The safe and fun pin-hole method only requires two sheets of stiff white paper. Stand with your back to the sun, punch a tiny hole in one paper, and position it directly over the other paper. Coburn’s favorite method is to buy inexpensive sunglasses made for viewing the eclipse.
“And you see these eclipse glasses and they are paper frames, and you think, 'How does this protect me?'" he said. "They are designed to block out 100% of the infrared, 100% of the ultraviolet, and 99.9% of the visible light."
Utah will not experience a “total eclipse”, as the 65-mile wide moon-shadowwill start just north of Utah, around Idaho Falls. Utahns can expect to see around 90 to 95% coverage of the sun. Check out this website to see every potential total solar eclipse in your lifetime.
