THURSDAY'S ECLIPSE VISIBLE IN AREA ONLY IF PEOPLE LOOK FOR IT

Thursday's solar eclipse, causing a commotion in Hawaii, will be visible here too if you know what to look for.

When the moon lines up between the sun and Earth, a total eclipse will turn day into night along a path stretching from the island of Hawaii to the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, central and southern Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Brazil.

A partial eclipse will be visible from most of the United States and southern Canada. Only Alaska, New England and northeastern Canada will miss the show.

Craig Joseph, assistant professor of physics at Southeast Missouri State University, said locally about 35 percent of the sun will be eclipsed by the moon Thursday.

"Most people wouldn't notice any difference at all," Joseph said. "The sky won't get dark. It really would go unnoticed if you didn't know to look for it."

The partial eclipse will begin here at 1:18 p.m. Mid eclipse will be at 2:16 p.m. and it ends at 3:12 p.m.

The safest, easiest way to watch the eclipse is at Southeast Missouri State University or Trail of Tears State Park.

Joseph said a telescope will be set up Thursday between Rhodes and Johnson science halls.

Trail of Tears is sponsoring "The Prodigal Sun," a program which allows visitors to see the eclipse through a telescope and pin-hole box viewers.

One word of warning. Viewing the eclipse is subject to weather conditions. A cloudy Thursday will obscure the site.

Joseph said indirect ways of viewing the sun are the only safe way. "Never look directly at the sun," he warned.

People risk permanent eye damage if they look directly at the eclipsed or uneclipsed sun - even for a few seconds - or watch the eclipse through binoculars, sunglasses, smoked glass, X-ray film, black plastic garbage bags and most kinds of welding goggles, photographic film and filters.

Joseph said solar eclipse are not rare, but one may not cross a particular geographic area for hundreds of years.

The most recent total solar eclipse visible from North America occurred Feb. 26, 1979, when observers witnessed 2 minutes of totality in the Pacific Northwest. The next total eclipse visible from the United States will occur on Aug. 21, 2017. Again, 2 minutes of totality are expected.

"There are scientific benefits to a solar eclipse," Joseph said. "It's the only time scientists are able to view the outer atmosphere of the sun, called the solar corona."

Because the sun is so bright, its outer atmosphere is difficult to study under normal circumstances. But during an eclipse, when the moon covers up the sun's disk, astronomers can discern fine details in the corona and that is just what scientists in Hawaii plan to do during Thursday's eclipse.

But for most observers, the sky show will provide a dramatic, once- in-a-lifetime spectacle that will be remembered for years to come.

"Mostly it's an awesome thing to see," Joseph said. "For those in the direct path of the moon shadow, it's something really awesome.

"I have talked to people who have experienced a solar eclipse. It's pretty dramatic thing to see the moon shadow coming at you, sweeping across the ground at 1,000 miles an hour. It's a gigantic shadow coming toward you. The temperature drops dramatically, 10 or 15 degrees. It's scary, even for a professional astronomer.

"This would be a good time to be vacationing in Hawaii," Joseph said.

(Some information for this story was provided by the Associated Press.)