There is an astronomer who will be watching the eclipse from the Centralia Regional Library Monday afternoon.
Mubbi Rahman of Toronto, Canada has relatives in Greenville.
He notes the sun and moon are in constant rotation with each other, but a full eclipse is rare.
“Every so often they pass and that is when you get the eclipse where the moon shadows the sun. This one is special because most of the time the shadow of the moon misses, but in this case it happens to be perfectly aligned and passing over Mexico, US and Canada. This is the last time its going to happen for many decades.”
Rahman explains what you will be seeing during totality.
“The entire sun is blocked. You will see all of the gas around the sun, it looks like a wonderful glowing crown. And since there is no sunlight, it will seem like night time in the middle of the day.”
Rahman says to make sure to wear solar glasses as the eclipse begins, but during totality when only the gasses are available around the sun it is safe to look at the full eclipse.
The eclipse will begin at 12:44 Monday afternoon in Salem, reach totality between 2:01 to 2:04 pm, and completely end at 3:19 Monday afternoon.
Many special viewing areas have been set up throughout the region. We have a listing of all the websites with information on events in area communities and Southern Illinois by going to the home page of WJBDradio.com.
