{"id":41084,"date":"2017-08-09T11:53:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T17:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=41084"},"modified":"2017-08-09T11:53:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T17:53:26","slug":"guide-to-viewing-the-solar-eclipse-on-august-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/guide-to-viewing-the-solar-eclipse-on-august-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Guide to Viewing the Solar Eclipse on August 21"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">On August 21 a solar eclipse will occur throughout a portion of <strong>North America<\/strong>. A solar eclipse is, in the simplest terms, when the moon\u2019s orbit places it in front of the sun and blocks most of the light. Where you are watching from will dictate how much of the eclipse you can see. Only those in a certain path across the country will be able to see the totality, when the moon completely blocks out the sun.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">From <strong>Oxford<\/strong> you will see the moon cover roughly 91% of the sun. If that\u2019s not enough and you want to experience the complete coverage of a totality, then you\u2019ll need to pack some bags and head north.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The closest place to catch the 100% eclipse is Tennessee. From <strong>Clarksville<\/strong> down to the <strong>Smoky Mountain National Park<\/strong> area you can catch the totality for durations varying from one minute to almost three minutes. The duration varies based on how close you are to the center of its path. When choosing your viewing location the two largest factors to consider are going to be traffic from others wanting to catch the totality as well as the weather forecast. Having a spot on the highest peak won\u2019t help if there\u2019s full cloud coverage all day. Chances are you won\u2019t be able to find a patch of land completely void of clouds, so aim for a location you have some options to move around in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TSE2017_state_overview_Tennessee.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"357\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41085\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TSE2017_state_overview_Tennessee.jpg?resize=600%2C357\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Eclipse enthusiasts have been planning their trips well in advance, so lodging might be difficult to come by near the totality. Traffic as well is predicted to be bumper to bumper the day of, so traveling ahead of time is highly recommended to help cut down on the time spent on the road and reduce the chance of having to watch the totality from a highway.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/traffic-routes.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"792\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41087\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/traffic-routes.jpg?resize=600%2C792\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">You\u2019ve picked a spot and you\u2019re ready to view the moon cover up the sun, so there\u2019s just one very important detail left: not blinding yourself. There are a couple different methods to view an eclipse without destroying your vision. The first and most recommended is using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/s\/ref=sr_nr_n_1?fst=as%3Aoff&amp;rh=n%3A2681344011%2Ck%3Aeclipse+glasses&amp;keywords=eclipse+glasses&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1502297092&amp;rnid=2941120011\">special glasses<\/a>  designed to protect your eyes while staring at the sun. Most any of the solar shades you find should work as long as they are compliant with 12312-2 international <a href=\"https:\/\/eclipse2017.nasa.gov\/safety\">safety standards<\/a>. You can also use the pinhole projector method which involves poking a hole in a piece of cardboard with a thumbtack, then holding then holding the board above your head with your back to the sun. You can aim the pinhole projector at a flat surface. Now you&#8217;re basically watching the eclipse and not losing any vision.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">If you\u2019re out of luck and can\u2019t catch this eclipse, the next one is just seven years away in 2024 and will be over Arkansas. Then, in 2045, the totality of a solar eclipse will be directly over North Mississippi, so if you\u2019re still around you\u2019ll be in for a treat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/21stCenturyNorthAmericanEclipses.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41086\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/21stCenturyNorthAmericanEclipses.png?resize=600%2C600\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14544 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"The Local Voice Ligature\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On August 21 a solar eclipse will occur throughout a portion of North America. A solar eclipse is,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":41088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8428],"tags":[5,642,4,10772,2676,3,753,10773],"class_list":["post-41084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-event","tag-mississippi","tag-ms","tag-oxford","tag-solar-eclipse","tag-tennessee","tag-the-local-voice","tag-tlv","tag-totality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/2017-08-09-eclipse.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}