**photo credit: wtvq.com**

BY: RACHEL SMITH

The media has been flooded lately with talks of the upcoming solar eclipse.  Apparently, as this happens every so often around the world, it is the first time to cross the entire continental United States in almost a century.  They’re saying it will be the biggest Astronomical event America has seen in years.

I mean, hordes of people are taking buses to put themselves in the path of 100% totality and having “eclipse parties.”

For real.

In all the excitement, I decided to do a little research to learn exactly what will take place.  Because you know… you’re out of school for quite a (*cough*) FEW years, and you forget the things you learned about in fifth grade science class.

Because honestly?  When I hear there’s going to be a “solar eclipse” my brain cells fire in such a way that I begin to sing Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit, Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Don’t lie – you’ve been humming it for days, too.  I’m just the only one brave enough to admit it.

Anyway… so I learned a total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, blocking our view of the sun.  According to the American Astronomical Society, we will notice the sky darken and feel a distinct drop in temperature.

CREEPY!

Seriously… it all sounds a bit apocalyptic to me.

Once the moon has blocked out the sun, you’ll be able to see the corona, which is a halo of exceedingly hot gas invisible under normal circumstances.  In our case… Clear Lake should have about 90% coverage, so there will be a tiny sliver of the sun not covered completely by the moon.

And now comes the mothering head tilt, ‘you listen to me and you listen to me good’ scolding.  If you’re planning to look up at the sun at any point during this, you MUST have specially designed solar filter glasses.  If you don’t, you’ll literally give your eyes a sunburn.

A bad one.

You could wake up Tuesday morning with blurred vision and have permanent damage, or you could be fine and have trouble down the road.  Either way… not good.

The ONLY time it would be safe to take off the glasses is if you are in the 100% totality zone.  If you are, for the approximate two minutes the moon has blocked the sun, it would be okay to take the glasses off.  Since we only have 90% totality here, the glasses must stay on at all times.

To locate retail chains that carry the glasses, I recommend going to http://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters