The first central eclipse to occur in the 21 century in the United States will occur tomorrow, May 20th. It will also be the first Annular eclipse to occur here since May 10th, 1994.

Video courtesy of Science at NASA

An Annular Eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun but the moon is further away from the earth in its ecliptical orbit, thus not covering the totality of the sun leaving an annulus or ring visible on earth.While there are at least two eclipses on earth every year and not more than 5, the event occurs in different parts of the globe from the north to south pole.

The eclipse will begin its journey accross the face of a waiting earth off of the coast of China, then awe viewers in Japan. The maximum will occur to the south of the Aleutian Islands at mid-day Sunday. It will progress towards the North American Coast where it will eventually subside over the southwest just before sundown. Some people along the path will see the eclipse as a fiery ring in the sky, but a vast majority of the veiwers will see it as a blazing cresent in the sky.

Even though the sun will be almost completely covered, one must not attempt to look directly at the sun as doing so can severely damage the eye. Always use eclipse glasses or a filtered telescope when viewing the sun, or alternately, direct the image from the viewfinder at a piece of white paper a distance away from the viewer. Do not attempt to look at the sun through an unfiltered telescope or binoculars, blindness can occur.

Another relatively cheap way to view the sun directly is with a #14 welding glass.

But, a simple and the cheapest way to observe the eclipse is to construct a pinhole projector, This can be done by using two pieces of paper, at least one of them being white. Make a hole in the center of one of the sheets of paper. A thumbtack will work nicely, it will make a hole at about the right size. Position the pierced paper above the white sheet of paper below it. The further you move the top sheet from the bottom sheet, the larger the image will appear.

If you miss out on the eclipse tomorrow, whether it be cloudy skies obscuring the view, or you live too far to the east for it to be visible before the sun sets, you will get another chance on August 21, 2017, when a total eclipse will cut a path over a large portion of the United States.