An annular - or ring shaped eclipse - will be visible for millions of people in the Western Hemisphere this Saturday, October 14.
Yellowstone Public Radio’s Orlinda Worthington lets us know where and when it can be seen in Montana.
An annular eclipse happens when the moon is farthest from the sun. The last one was in 2012. We’ll see only a partial version in Montana. But that does not make it any less spectacular for research, according to Dr. Angela De Jardin, an associate research professor of physics at Montana State University Bozeman.
“Understanding how the atmosphere responds to a special case of an eclipse can teach us more about the atmosphere in general, which helps us understand things like predicting weather and climate change,” De Jardin said.
The information collected this weekend will be coupled with further research gathered during the full solar eclipse in April 2024.
Dr. Elaine Westbrook, is an assistant professor in the college of education at MSU Billings. She says there’s another type of research project we can all take part in.
“ I guess another type of science project is to watch the behavior of animals to see how they react. because they don’t expect this to happen, right? I don’t know if my chickens are all gonna go in the coop cuz’ there like oh, it’s time to go to bed,” Westbrook said.
The eclipse begins Saturday at 9:13 Mountain Time and will reach its greatest coverage of the sun at 10:30.
In Billings I’m Orlinda Worthington.
It’s recommended people view the eclipse only through special glasses.
For more information, visit https://www.msubillings.edu/ucam/releases/2017/2017Aug11Eclipse.htmill
