Ashland will see eclipse, but only 27.1%
By Bert Etling, Ashland.news
It’ll be partly cloudy and partly moony Monday in Ashland, forecasters predict. While it’s hard to say ahead of time exactly how the clouds ebb and flow will track, we know when the sun will be most obscured by the moon: 11:20 a.m.
That’s when 27.1% of the sun’s surface will be hidden behind the disk of the moon, according to NASA data about Ashland’s 97520 zip code.
The west coast is far from the central track of Monday’s total eclipse that will sweep northeast from Mexico, up the midwest U.S. to the southern Great Lakes and east through Maine, passing on over Canada and into the north Atlantic Ocean.
The Southern Oregon obscuration begins at 10:25 a.m. and ends at 12:17 p.m, a total duration of 1 hour, 52 minutes, according to the Southern Oregon Skywatchers. Even at its peak, it will be far from the solar coverage of an annular eclipse just last Oct. 14 and the Aug. 21, 2017, total eclipse farther north in Oregon.
Looking at the sun with the naked eye can cause blindness. It’s best to use eclipse viewing glasses (not sunglasses), or a pinhole projector (poke a hole in a sheet of cardboard or piece of paper and focus the image on the ground, or another piece of paper).
Or just look at the shadow of a leafy tree during the partial eclipse, says the American Astronomical Society: “You’ll see the ground dappled with crescent-shaped Suns projected by the tiny spaces between the leaves. A colander makes a terrific pinhole projector, as does a straw hat, a perforated spoon, a Ritz cracker, or anything else with small holes in it.”
People can expect a high of 61 in Ashland on Monday, says the National Weather Service. And a sky that’s — go figure — “partly sunny” — at least, that is, for nearly two hours in late morning.
Email Ashland.news Executive Editor Bert Etling at [email protected] or call or text him at 541-631-1313.
