No ‘ring of fire’? Clouds threaten view of Saturday’s annular eclipse

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Robert Black, planetarium director at North Medford High School, has been planning for Saturday’s “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse, but clouds are in the forecast.

He and his students planned to use seven telescopes and seven cameras to record the big event, which will begin about 8:05 a.m. and last until about 10:40 a.m. and isn’t expected to happen again in the area until 2045.

But on Monday, Black sent out an email to the students breaking the bad news about the forecast.

“I’ve been looking forward to the solar eclipse for a couple years,” Black said during a telephone interview Tuesday. “I’m not pleased with the weather forecast for Saturday morning.”

“We’ve done so much preparation, to not be able to film the actual event, it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “That’s what the kids said.”

“I haven’t abandoned all hope.”

Maybe there will be a break in the clouds, but the National Weather Service in Medford on Tuesday provided a “2023 Annular Eclipse Weather Forecast” for Southern Oregon and Northern California.

“Very high probability of cloudy skies,” the advisory stated. “Higher cirrus clouds likely, so eclipse could still be viewable in some form. Locations west of the Cascades and along the coast have a 50% chance of seeing thicker lower clouds.”

The chance of rain is 30%-50% west of the Cascade Mountains and 0%-15% east of the mountains, according to the forecast. Forecasts change, of course.

NWS meteorologist Mike Petrucelli sounded doubtful, but not fully pessimistic.

“Right now, it’s looking a little bit questionable,” he said midday Tuesday, adding that a weather system was expected to move in Friday. “It could prevent any good viewing at this point.”

“A lot of it is coming down to timing,” he continued. “There’s some indication of maybe a brief break. There could be a little window of opportunity.”

Even if there is cloud cover, people should still notice a darkening of the sky as the eclipse begins, hits its peak and wanes.

“It’s going to get darker, but it’s not going to be totally dark,” Petrucelli said. “It will be like twilight or shortly after daybreak.”

In an annular solar eclipse, the moon moves in front of the sun but doesn’t completely block it, leaving a ring of sunlight encircling the moon. It’s similar to a total eclipse where the moon blocks the sun as it passes between the sun and the Earth; however, with an annular eclipse the moon is farther away from the Earth than during a total eclipse, making it look like there is a ring of fire around the moon. “Annular” means ring.

The maximum extent of the eclipse in Medford, when the moon moves within the circle of the sun, will last for about 1 minute, 7 seconds, starting at about 9:18 a.m. The eclipse starts at 8:05 a.m. when the moon begins to partly obscure the sun, and ends at 10:40 a.m.

Medford is on the southern edge of the 125-mile-wide path of “annularity.” Areas outside the path will experience varying degrees of a partial solar eclipse. Farther north, in Roseburg and Crater Lake National Park, the annularity will last more than four minutes, according to timeanddate.com. Jacksonville and Ashland are outside the path, but still will experience a partial solar eclipse.

In Chiloquin, Eclipsefest2023 is scheduled to be held, with promoters offering camping, food, drink, vendors and a Smash Mouth concert. That area, which is east of the Cascades, might be among the better viewing locations in the region, based on the forecast.

People viewing the eclipse should be sure to wear special eclipse glasses. Sunglasses aren’t enough. Some people might have glasses left over from the total solar eclipse in 2017 in Oregon. The Jackson County Library District and ScienceWorks are planning viewing events where glasses are provided:

• Library events are set for 8-10 a.m. at the Central Point Library, 116 S. Third St.; 8:05-10:40 a.m. at Pear Blossom Park, 312 E. Fourth St. in Medford; and 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Butte Falls Library, 626 Fir Ave.

Register for the ScienceWorks event online

• to receive glasses, which are available for the first 300 people. See https://scienceworksmuseum.org/events. The free event runs from 8-10 a.m. outside on the museum plaza. A link with NASA showing the eclipse will be projected in the science cinema. Museum entry is extra. Special programming is set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call ScienceWorks at 541-482-6767 for more information.

For more information about eclipses, go to https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/ or https://eclipse2024.org/.