THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street
Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249
usm.maine.edu/planet

Greetings, all!

Yes, tomorrow we here in New England will experience a partial solar eclipse.   While it won't dazzle, delight or instill mortal fear in the credulous, it will still be worth a peek, provided of course, that you peek from behind protective shades.    (More on this shameless self promotion later.)

Here's the timeline  (although it's valid only for our city of crystal and other illicit diversions, the times will be similar for anyone in the region.)

12:21:00  Partial Eclipse begins
At this moment, you will start to see a faint hint of a shadow as the moon first appears against the solar disk.   

1:25:50 p.m.   Maximum eclipse
The climax, or what some might deem the anti-climax- occurs.       The moon will cover the maximum amount of the disk from our perspective.     The magnitude will be 0.262.   [A pedantic aside:   Magnitude refers to the percentage of the solar diameter the moon covers.   Obscuration measures the percentage of the solar disk actually concealed.    Although these values converge as the magnitude increases,they are generally not the same.    The Sun will be approximately 17 -18% obscured at maximum.  Not enough to perplex wildlife or mobilize battalions of dragon-traumatizing archers.]       

Refer to the attached image of the maximum eclipse - from our perspective.

2:30:16  p.m.   Partial Eclipse ends
After maximum, the moon then moves away from the Sun and by 2:30 p.m. will no longer appear as a dark disk against the Sun.  The event is over!


While lucky sods in the west and south of our country will experience an annular solar eclipse, we here will only see a partial one.  However, we'll exact our revenge on April 8, 2024, when Maine will experience its first total solar eclipse since July 20, 1963!     (Unfortunately, that eclipse won't be total in the Greater Portland area.    More on this injustice at a later date.)


Now, as for the eclipse glasses

Yes, we have them.
Yes, we're selling them.
And, yes, despite the fact that we're proud Americans, we haven't jacked up the price to $14.95 a pair  plus a Honk* "administrative fee."      The cost is and shall remain   $2.00 a pair.

We are open until 2 p.m. today.
We'll also be open from 9:30 a.m. t0 2:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Please feel free to venture into the planetarium to procure your pair or pairs.

We are located in the basement of the Science Building on the University of Southern Maine's Portland campus.    Just follow the ethereal sounds of the ambient space music.

Remember:   it took the gods the better part of an afternoon to both create your eyes and make it look like they just developed by chance.  Show your appreciation by protecting them.  



*For the benefit of those not on the University campus, this is a reference to the new Parking system that's been implemented to ensure that the palpable tension pervading the campus never dissipates.