The Smoky Mountains STEM Collaborative (SMSC) is celebrating the upcoming annular solar eclipse with a watch party beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14 in the Balsam parking lot of Southwestern Community College’s Jackson campus.
Telescopes equipped with solar filters for safe viewing, hands-on eclipse activities, safe-solar-viewing glasses and a balloon launch (at 11:30 a.m.)
There will be telescopes equipped with solar filters for safe viewing, hands-on eclipse activities and a balloon launch at 11:30 a.m. in a collaborative effort with Western Carolina University.
The annular solar eclipse will begin at approximately 11:45 a.m. ET and end around 2:45 p.m. It is strongly recommended to use eclipse glasses while viewing.
“This eclipse will be different from the 2017 total eclipse in two ways,” says Matt Cass, Physics and Astronomy instructor at SCC and Principal Investigator for the SMSC. “First, it is an annular eclipse, meaning the moon is too far away to totally block out the sun, creating the ring of fire effect. Secondly, as we are not directly in the path, this eclipse will also only be a partial eclipse for us in western North Carolina. Both mean that everyone in our region should only look at the eclipse using indirect methods or certified safe, solar viewing glasses.”
Southwestern is the nation's only community college to have a scientific partnership with NASA.
The next total solar eclipse will occur April 8, 2024.
