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October Solar Eclipse Event
October 14, 2023 @ 8:00 am - 11:00 am
The partial solar eclipse runs from 8:10 am to 10:54 am and you can view it safely at Maturango Museum.
The Maturango Museum will have eclipse glasses for sale and solar eclipse projector boxes available for viewing the Sun. Members from the China Lake Astronomical Society will be present with their solar telescopes.
An annular solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth. Since the Moon’s path is elliptical, the distance between the Earth and the Moon varies between a minimum of 221,000 miles to a maximum of 252,000 miles. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is near its maximum distance from Earth. Therefore, the Moon appears smaller than the Sun and the Moon doesn’t completely block the Sun. During annularity, the Moon appears as a dark disc on top of a larger bright disc creating what looks like a ring of fire around the Moon.
Since Ridgecrest is not in the path of this annular solar eclipse, we will view a partial solar eclipse. The Moon will cover 76.5% of the Sun at the peak of the eclipse. The solar eclipse starts at 8:10 with the Moon just starting to cover an edge of the Sun. The maximum coverage of 76.5% of the Sun occurs at 9:28 am. The Moon continues to travel across the face of the Sun until 10:54 am when the Moon is no longer blocking the Sun’s rays.
Never look directly at the Sun unless you have proper eye protection for solar viewing.
Sunglasses DO NOT work. Viewing any part of the bright Sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury. Do not take a selfie of you and the Sun. The Sun can burn the retinas in the eyes leading to permanent damage or blindness. This can occur even if your eyes are exposed to direct sunlight for just a few seconds. Safe solar viewers such as eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker and must comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard.
On October 7th from noon to 2 pm, the Maturango Museum is hosting a “Make your own Cereal box eclipse viewer”. Bring your cereal box and the Maturango Museum will provide additional materials needed as well as the instructions!