Young Observers

Christmas Day Eclipse

This partial eclipse of the Sun is the final eclipse in the second millennium. Starting at 11:05am, Christmas morning, Ottawa time, the Moon will move in front of the Sun and partially block the light. At 12:41pm, 60% of the Sun will be covered by the Moon and then the Moon will gradually move away and it all ends at 2:15pm. During mid eclipse, notice the lighting outdoors. Although it won’t get totally dark, the light will change and shadows may look strange.

When the Moon blocks light from the Sun, casting a shadow on the Earth, it's called a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse can only occur at new moon. The Sun is much larger and farther away than the Moon, but they look the same size to us. In a partial solar eclipse, the moon covers only a portion of the Sun, giving it a crescent shape.

The only totally safe way to watch a partial eclipse is by viewing it indirectly, using some form of projection. Children should be supervised.

Most health professionals recommend the simple pinhole viewer. You can make this with a cardboard box or with two pieces of stiff card. Punch a tiny hole in one of the cards and, with your back to the Sun, hold the card up so that light falls through the hole, projecting an inverted image on to the other card. Do not look at the Sun through the pinhole.

Direct viewing

Many eclipse watchers may want to view the partly eclipsed Sun directly. Use only #14 welders glasses or a certified solar filter specially made to fit telescopes.
 
Special eclipse viewers made of either aluminized polyester or a very dark polymer material are available but these cannot be guaranteed to be totally safe.

DON'T USE DANGEROUS SUBSTITUTE FILTERS!

Materials that should not be used as solar filters include:

• sunglasses
• photographic neutral density filters
• smoked glass
• polarizing filters
• compact discs
• floppy disk media
• black colour film
• any black and white film negatives bearing images.

Seeing a total eclipse is a fantastic experience. But without proper preparation it can also be very dangerous to the eyes and vision.

No pain does not mean no damage.

Viewing the partly-eclipsed Sun (or the Sun anytime) without protective equipment will result in a retinal burn. Depending on how long the retina is exposed to the Sun, this injury may cause permanent damage to vision.
There is no pain when the retina is being burned, and the resulting visual symptoms do not occur until at least several hours after the injury has occurred - by which time it is far too late.

With that in mind, enjoy the show. The time in the simulation below is Zulu Time or, if you prefer, UT (Universal Time). Substract 5 hours to have our time zone which is EST (Eastern Standard Time) .

This page last modified: December 16, 2000