Dr. Wolfgang Strickling

My actual results   Deutscher Text

On August 21, 2017 a solar eclipse will occur  over the entire North American continent and parts of South America, the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. The band of totality will cross the US states Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina. When crossing the Oregon coastline, the Moon will cover the Sun for about 2 minutes. The duration of totality will increase the more the shadow moves eastward. At the point of maximum eclipse 50 miles west of Nashville there will occur 2 minutes and 40 seconds of totality. Afterwards the duration will decrease, but when reaching the East coast of South Carolina north of Charleston there will still remain more than 2:30.

In north-western Europe, the eclipse will only be visible as a partial eclipse, in the evening or at sunset, see map at right. Only Iceland, Scotland and Ireland will see the eclipse from beginning to end, in the the rest of the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal sunset will occur before the end of the eclipse. In Germany, only in the extreme north-west the beginning of the eclipse might be visible just at sunset. In all regions east of the orange line in the map the eclipse will be invisible.

Eye safety:

During the entire eclipse, except the short moment of totality, you must protect your eyes! Use certified eclipse shades or eclipse glasses. Common sunglasses are not sufficient by far! Binoculars and telescopes must be equipped with proper filters to reduce the light. Very important: Never use eclipse shades behind a telescope ocular, because they will melt in the focused heat of the lenses! If you are in the central zone, you do not need any shades during totality, when the sky becomes completely dark as night. You can observe the corona safely with your naked eyes and even with binoculars or telescopes. But do not forget to put filters and shades on before totality is over!
To remind you for putting the eclipse glasses off and on an app on your mobile phone like Eclipse 2017 or EclipseDroid is very useful.