Enjoy the eclipse without hurting your eyes

Tomorrow’s the big day. The sky will darken Monday afternoon, as the moon passes between the sun and Earth creating a partial solar eclipse over Northern Virginia.

The eclipse will begin in our area around 2:04 p.m. and end around 4:32 p.m. The maximum eclipse will occur around 3:20 p.m.

The path of the total eclipse will be visible in the United States from Texas to Maine. In our area, the moon will block about 87 percent of the sun.

The National Weather Service predicts Monday will be mostly sunny in the morning with a slight chance of showers after 2 p.m.  

While people viewing the eclipse from the area of totality won’t need special glasses to view the eclipse, we do need them in Northern Virginia to avoid serious eye injury.

If you have eclipse glasses, you should try them on to make sure they totally block all light. If not, they are fake.

Since we are not in the path of totality in Northern Virginia, it will not be safe to view the eclipse without special solar viewing glasses, welder’s goggles, or using a homemade device like a pinhole projector.

Viewing the eclipse with standard sunglasses can cause eye injury, and so can using a camera lens, binoculars, or telescope without a special-purpose solar filter. NASA offers more safety tips to protect your eyes.

It might be hard to get eclipse glasses at this late date. George Mason Regional Library has run out of its supply of free glasses.

The Park Authority has scheduled several eclipse viewing events – although none of them are in the Annandale/Mason District area. Presale tickets are sold out at all four locations.

The Fairfax County Public Library is hosting eclipse parties at the Centreville Regional Library, the Dolley Madison Library in McLean, and the Sherwood Regional Library in the Mount Vernon area.

If you’re planning to take photos of the eclipse, experts advise taping an extra set of eclipse glasses on your phone to protect it from damage. The AP posted a YouTube video with tips for more advanced cameras.

If you’re heading west to view the total eclipse, allow for lots of extra time. Millions of people are already clogging the roads. Also, check the weather before heading out, as cloudy conditions are expected in some of those locations.

During the last total eclipse in the U.S., in 2017, some of the roads in the path of totality were extremely congested.

If you can’t see the eclipse in person, NASA will be streaming the eclipse live along the path of totality.

Among other ways to celebrate the eclipse, several companies are rolling out limited edition items, such as Krispy Kreme’s “Total Solar Eclipse Doughnut.” It’s a glazed donut with black chocolate icing, silver sprinkles, stuffed with a buttercream-Oreo filling, and topped with an Oreo cookie.

Sonic Drive-In is selling a “Blackout Slush Float.” Frito-Lay is offering a limited-edition eclipse version of Sun Chips – pineapple habanero and black bean spicy gouda chips – that can only be ordered online during the four and a-half minutes of totality. You can also get a limited-edition eclipse carton of mini-Moon Pies.

If you miss the eclipse in 2024, you won’t get another chance until August 2045.