‘Ring of Fire’ solar eclipse to grace U.S. skies this weekend

A special astronomical event will grace the skies this weekend as just about everyone in the Western Hemisphere is treated to varying degrees of an annular solar eclipse.

The moon will move directly in front of the sun on Saturday, but the eclipse this time won’t be total. With an annular eclipse, the moon is too far from Earth to completely obscure the sun’s disk. For a few brief moments, it is centered within the sun’s disk and outlined by a bright ring, the sun’s outer rim. Hence the nickname “Ring of Fire.”

It’s the first such eclipse since May 2012, and there won’t be another until October 2041.

Unlike with a total eclipse, there is no safe time to look at an annular eclipse without appropriate eye protection, experts warn.

The eclipse will obscure part of the sun for a total of 2½ to three hours. Even folks in New York City will get to see to at least a partial version, a crescent. The full annular eclipse will pass through seven states and more than 20 national park regions, according to the National Park Service.

The 130-mile-wide path will give millions of Americans prime viewing as the eclipse starts in the North Pacific, enters the U.S. over Oregon at about 8 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday and heads southeast across Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas. Bits of Idaho, California, Arizona and Colorado will also be privy to the sight.

Less than an hour after gracing U.S. shores, it will move into the Gulf of Mexico at Corpus Christi, Tex., and make its way across the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, then Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Brazil.

The Ring of Fire portion, depending on an observer’s location, will last anywhere from three to five minutes. For those who cannot get an in-person glimpse, NASA will broadcast the event.

Oregon is gearing up for a crush of eclipse tourism in Klamath County, the Oregonian reported. Lodgings are booked and festivals are slated to host thousands. Klamath County officials told The Oregonian that they are expecting up to 70,000 people to show up, with clear skies forecast. They will go to Crater Lake National Park and converge on Eclipse Fest, a days-long festival just outside the city of Klamath Falls.

Great Basin National Park in Nevada is also expecting a crowd, the National Park Service noted.

In total, more than 6.5 million people live along the path of annularity and another 68 million are within 200 miles of it, according to NASA planetary scientist Alex Lockwood.