ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — We're now just one week away from the 'Great North American’ solar eclipse. The path of totality, where the sky will go dark, will stretch from Texas to Maine.
Floridians, including us here in the Tampa Bay area, will be able to see the partial eclipse. 10 Tampa Bay spoke to an expert at NASA about the big event, while in town to throw out the first pitch at the Ray's game.
“You see it, you understand it, you know what the impact of it was on you personally,” says Burt Summerfield, Associate Director of Management at NASA. “So there's a very personal aspect of the science associated with an eclipse.”
Floridians will have to wait more than 20 years for a full view. In August, 2045, another total solar eclipse will pass over the U.S. but the path of totality then will pass directly over the Florida peninsula.
“All of us, including people here in Florida, will get a chance to experience the eclipse,” Summerfield says. “It will be about a 65 percent reduction in sunlight when it goes through here at its peak period.
So what is going to look like for us in Tampa Bay? The action will begin after lunch, around 1:45 p.m.
It will take about 90 minutes for the moon to cover the sun at its maximum for us, that's 65 percent reduction in sunlight. It will look like dusk for about a half hour.
Then, the moon doesn't pass straight over the sun but will go up in our view before the eclipse is over after four.
While the moon rarely overshadows the sun, it's all NASA can think about as it continues plans for the first manned space mission to the moon since 1972.
“Obviously, the crews were there and they left, but it's not where our goal is today,” Summerfield says. “That's to establish a permanent base on the moon.”
Consider the eclipse only a preview of the moon taking some of the sun's spotlight in Florida. Next year the moon takes center stage.