by Paul J. Heney
On Saturday, October 14, 2023, a large swath of the country — from Oregon to Texas — experienced an annular solar eclipse. This was a nice practice run for the great American eclipse in April 2024, which will plunge Cleveland and its surrounding communities into darkness for almost four minutes.
Annular solar eclipses don’t happen annually, in spite of their name. Instead, these are eclipses that occur when the moon is at its furthest portion of its orbit away from the Earth. When this happens, the moon’s disk is slightly smaller than the sun’s, disk and at mid-eclipse, there’s a thin ring (or annulus) of sun peeking out all around the moon. This is sometimes called a “ring of fire” eclipse.
Annular Solar Eclipse: A Different Experience
With annular eclipses, you wear the special eclipse safety glasses the whole time. First contact happens when the moon starts to take the first nibble out of the sun’s disk. From that moment, the sun slowly disappears.
The sun will go from a lopsided ring to a symmetrical one at mid-eclipse and back. Then, the sun’s appearance reverses the earlier sequence, going from a skinny crescent to a fatter crescent until the moon’s disk fully moves off the sun’s, and the last “bite” disappears. At mid-eclipse, the landscape looks completely different; the quality of the light is muted and colors become less vibrant. Even with no clouds in the sky, it can look like a cloudy day.
The biggest difference between an annular and a total solar eclipse is you can NEVER remove the safety glasses. Even when the sun is reduced to a skinny ring, it is too dangerous to look at it directly.
Total Solar Eclipse: What We Will See in The Land
While annular solar eclipses are unique to experience, they pale in comparison to standing in the path of totality during a total solar eclipse. That narrow 125-mile-wide path of totality in April 2024 will give viewers in Cleveland a seat second to none.
When totality hits — unlike annularity — the sun’s disk will become fully hidden for about 3 minutes and 50 seconds. That means no glasses, just your naked eyes taking in what looks like an impossibly black hole in the sky. The sun’s atmosphere, the glorious solar corona, appears like ethereal spikes coming out of the hole. All around you will be sunset colors along the horizon, 360° of brighter skies. (Please see important eye protection information here.)
There’s a possibility that we will be able to see several planets, maybe even a comet, and a handful of stars. The sky will get noticeably darker, like in mid-twilight. Right before totality hits, the shadow of the moon comes up on the horizon. It’s going to be steller.
This out-of-this-world event is approaching The Land quickly. It’s time to get your eclipse glasses, your guide to all things Total Solar Eclipse in Cleveland and make your way to CLE.