Total solar eclipse August 21: Colfax resident donates eclipse glasses to library in memory of her brother

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  — After reading that some libraries have solar eclipse glasses patrons can check out, Colfax resident Mary Packer knew exactly what she wanted to do with memorial money for her brother. 

“He was always interested in the stars … that would be right up his alley,” Mary said.

Tim Packer died in July of 2016.

A total solar eclipse, when the moon passes between the sun and Earth and completely covers the sun, or at least appears to cover the sun, will occur across the mid section of the United States on August 21. 

Tim and Mary grew up in the Menomonie area, and then later on, Tim lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

“He didn’t like the winter weather in Wisconsin,” she said.

After Tim passed away, Mary received some memorial money for him and considered buying books in his memory. 

Tim always was interested in a wide variety of subjects, including biology, history, astronomy and gardening, she said.

It was then she read about the libraries with eclipse glasses that could be checked out.

When Tim and Mary were growing up, Tim always loved to watch the stars and had a telescope.

“Fifty years ago, there wasn’t so much light pollution, and you really could see the stars. We lived out in the country,” Mary said.

Mary contacted Lisa Bragg-Hurlburt about obtaining the eclipse glasses for the Colfax Public Library.

“I knew Lisa would do the research and get just the right thing that would be safe for people to use,” she said.

“If Tim were alive, he’d be right out there watching the eclipse … I am looking forward to it. I hope the weather cooperates,” Mary said.

“It will be a fun thing to do, especially if we have to wait a hundred years for another eclipse,” she said.

The last time a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire United States was in June of 1918.

Mary is happy in the knowledge the brand new eclipse glasses at the Colfax Public Library will provide adequate protection for the eyesight of library patrons.

“Even if eclipse glasses are only three or four years old, people probably should not use them. If they’ve got a scratch on them, you shouldn’t use them,” she noted.

Mary said she checked out a pair of the glasses and then looked up at the sun.

“It’s kind of fun to be able to see that little orange dot,” she said. 

Per family

The Colfax Public Library received the eclipse glasses in early August.

“We are allowing one pair per family so they can provide the maximum number of opportunities to see the eclipse,” said Bragg-Hurlburt, the director of the Colfax library.

“I did not realize we had a big solar eclipse coming until Mary made the suggestion (for the glasses). I looked online and saw that it was pretty exciting. We used the donation to get 15 pairs of these glasses for the library. While we are checking them out, we will keep one pair here for library viewing. If anybody does not manage to get a pair for checkout, we will have a pair here that we can share and take turns,” Bragg-Hurlburt said.

“We also ordered some books. They must be pretty popular. The one we have gotten so far (as of the first week in August) is checked out. Of course there’s more interest in the topic now,” she said.

The solar eclipse glasses are in the science section of the library. 

Bragg-Hurlburt said she put them there to encourage visitors to explore what’s in the library and particularly to explore the science section.

“We try to get people to come back here. We have multiple copies of the wildflower books for the kids to do their science collection. I think that’s a great project the high school does,” Bragg-Hurlburt said.

The eclipse glasses are very dark when you put them on and are many times darker than sunglasses. No ordinary light from overhead lighting comes through the glasses, and in fact, you cannot see anything. 

Bragg-Hurlburt said she put on a pair of the solar eclipse glasses and then shined a flashlight. 

“I could see the halo of light,” she said.

“If someone were selling regular sunglasses as eclipse glasses, that would not be appropriate,” Bragg-Hurlburt noted.

August 21

The total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21, will be visible in totality in a 70-mile wide strip across the United States and will begin at Lincoln Beach, Oregon, at 9:05 a.m., with totality beginning at 10:16 a.m., and will end at Charleston, South Carolina, meaning the eclipse will travel west to east. 

The farther you are away from the “path of totality,” the smaller the percentage of the sun that will be covered. 

According to the Wisconsin Weather & Photography Facebook page, the start time of the solar eclipse in the Eau Claire area will be 11:45 a.m., and the eclipse will be at its maximum at around 1:09 p.m., with an end time of 2:31 p.m. The sun will be nearly 82 percent covered at the maximum. In northern Wisconsin, the times will be approximately the same, with the maximum eclipse occurring at 1:07 p.m., but with 76 percent of the sun covered. 

Everyone in the contiguous United States will be able to see at least a partial eclipse, but parts of South America, Africa and Europe also will be able to see a partial eclipse, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website.

The longest amount of time when the moon will completely cover the sun at any given location will be two minutes and 40 seconds, according to NASA.

Once the eclipse begins in Oregon, “over the next hour and a half, it will cross through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. The total eclipse will end near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:48 p.m. EDT. From there the lunar shadow leaves the United States at 4:09 EDT. Its longest duration will be near Carbondale, Illinois, where the sun will be completely covered for two minutes and 40 seconds,” according to the NASA website.

The NASA website cautions, “You never want to look directly at the sun without appropriate protection except during totality. That could severely hurt your eyes. However, there are many ways to safely view an eclipse of the sun including direct viewing – which requires some type of filtering device and indirect viewing where you project an image of the sun onto a screen. Both methods should produce clear images of the partial phase of an eclipse.”

The only safe way to look at the sun or a partial eclipse is with special solar eclipse glasses or handheld  solar viewers. 

Viewing the total solar eclipse, when the sun is completely covered by the moon, can be done safely without solar eclipse glasses, according to NASA. But never, ever look at the partial eclipse or the sun without eclipse glasses, the website notes. 

Since Wisconsin will be in the partial eclipse zone, there will be no time when you can look directly at the partial eclipse without risking permanent damage to your eyes. 

“Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun; they transmit thousands of times too much sunlight,” according to NASA.

Handheld viewers or solar eclipse glasses compliant with the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard for such products are the only safe way to view the eclipse.

If the handheld viewer or the glasses are scratched or damaged, do not use them.

Here are NASA’s safety recommendations for the solar eclipse:

• Always supervise children using solar filters.

• Stand still and cover your eyes with your eclipse glasses or solar viewer before looking up at the bright sun. After looking at the sun, turn away and remove your filter. Do not remove it while looking at the sun.

• Do not look at the sun or partially eclipsed sun through an unfiltered camera, telescope, binoculars or other optical device. 

• Do not look at the sun through a camera, a telescope, binoculars or any other optical device while using your eclipse glasses or hand-held solar viewer. The concentrated solar rays will damage the filter and enter your eyes, causing serious injury.

• Before using a solar filter with a camera, a telescope, binoculars or any other optical advice, seek the expert advice of an astronomer. Solar filters must be attached to the front of a telescope, binoculars, camera lens or other optics and not attached to the eyepiece. 

• You must always use a safe solar filter to view the sun directly. If you normally wear eyeglasses, keep them on. Put your eclipse glasses on over them, or hold your handheld viewer in front of them.

• You can also view the eclipse with pinhole projection. One way to do that is to cross the outstretched, slightly open fingers of one hand over the outstretched, slightly open fingers of the other hand, creating a waffle pattern. With your back to the sun, look at the shadow of your hands on the ground. The spaces between your fingers will project a grid of small images on the ground, showing the sun as a crescent during the partial phases of the eclipse. You can also look at the shadow of a leafy tree during the partial eclipse. The ground will be dappled with crescent suns projected by the tiny spaces between the leaves. 

• Welders glasses also can be used to view the eclipse, as long as they have Shade 12 or higher.

For more information about safely viewing the solar eclipse, visit www.eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety.