Fort Pierce - Tuesday March 26, 2024: It is now less than two weeks until the next total solar eclipse which, here along Florida’s Treasure Coast, will only be seen as a partial eclipse.
Hallstrom Planetarium Director, and IRSC Associate Professor of Astronomy Jon Bell has announced that IRSC's Hallstrom Planetarium, on the Fort Pierce Massey campus, will provide safe, guided views of the eclipse.
Members of the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society and student club members of IRSC’s Hallstrom Astronomy Society will be on hand, beginning at 1:30 pm on Monday, April 8, to help interested observers can safely view the eclipse using powerful filters that allow you to view the sun directly.
This is a free event, and is open to the general community as well as to IRSC employees, students and their families.
First contact, that first “bite” that is taken out of the sun by the silhouetted moon, will occur at 1:48 pm EDT. Maximum eclipse (60%), will be at 3:03 pm, and the moon will continue to move eastward across the sun until the solar disc is fully restored at 4:16 pm.
In the case of cloudy weather, viewing of the eclipse will be done indoors, on the domed ceiling of the IRSC Hallstrom Planetarium - we will provide images of the eclipse from other observing locations where the skies are clear. We will also be able to show real-time views of the sun where it is totally eclipsed, from places like Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, western and northern New York state, then through southern Canada and northern Maine.
For those who would like to see a total eclipse, but don't want to leave the Treasure Coast, you'll have to wait until August 12, 2045, 21 years from now.
