North Texas residents can attend solar eclipse watch parties in Southlake at Family Park, 1400 Main St.; McKinney at the Collin County Farm Museum, 7117 CR 166; and Grapevine at the Grapevine Public Library, 1201 Municipal Way. Find out everything you need to know about the eclipse below.
Editor’s note: The following interview with Renshaw was edited for length and clarity.
1. What is a solar eclipse?
A solar eclipse is when the moon goes in between the line of sight from earth to the sun. In other words, the moon starts to go in front of the sun during the day time and it starts to block some of the light out.
2. Is there anything special about the solar eclipse set to occur Monday?
In the case of the eclipse this year, the alignment is such that the moon will completely block the view of the sun. It is just a coincidence that this actually happens. The moon appears to be the same size of the sun in the sky although it’s 400 or so times smaller; the sun is actually 400 times further away and so it’s really [a] coincidence that this actually happens and we get this total eclipse scenario.
3. Is it still worth checking out even though it’s not a total eclipse?
It is definitely something that you want to go out and check out. These don’t happen very often. There is a solar eclipse about every 18 months but because of the eccentricity of the orbits, this doesn’t happen in the same place on Earth every 18 months. And on top [of] that, most solar eclipses are not total solar eclipses, only about 30 percent are.
4. Since it is only 70 percent, how much darker will it be?
It will definitely get darker. There is definitely going to be light still, but the intensity of the light outside will reduce by about two-thirds.
5. Does this eclipse have the potential to be dangerous at all?
For people viewing the eclipse, they don’t want to look directly at it. There is still 30 percent of the sun that you see and so that is enough intensity to hurt your eyes if you are looking directly at it. So, you need to get solar filters, they often look like a pair of 3-D glasses. If you use solar filters you have to make sure they are compliant with the standard ISO 12312-2, an international safety standard that tells how much light will be blocked by those filters. Using this standard would allow you to look at the sun indefinitely as long as the filter is the right kind, so you could actually view the entire eclipse.
6. Where do you buy solar filters?
You can buy them online; probably the most common place to find them now would be E-bay or Amazon. But you want to make sure you are buying from a vendor who is actually providing [glasses that] meet the safety standard. Paper versions run for a couple of dollars, and the sunglasses type run from anywhere from $20-$50.
7. How long does the total eclipse last?
If you’re in an area where you actually see the total eclipse… [it] will last for about two to three minutes. And so, for the two to three minutes where the moon is blocking the sun, you can actually look it directly without any filters because all of the direct light of the sun is blocked at that point. And all you will see around it is the chromosphere and the photosphere.
8. When will another solar eclipse of this magnitude happen?
There will be another eclipse in 18 months but in a different part of the world. The next eclipse that will occur in the U.S. won’t occur until 2024.
