The Eclipse

There will be a total eclipse of the Sun on Saturday, June 8th. It will begin generally at 1:30 central time, or 12:30 present time, and will end about 6:40 p.m. It will be visible over the entire northern half of the northern Hemisphere and over all of North America.

The line of totality will begin near the Japan Islands, cross the Pacific ocean to Seattle, and far South and East across the U.S., being total at Seattle, Portland, Denver, Oklahoma City, New Orleans and Jacksonville. It will be total or nearly so over all the following states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. In Nebraska the western part will be nearly total, the eastern part about ⅞ total.

The time of totality will vary from a little over two minutes to a little less than one minute, and the width of the total path from 250 to 140 miles. When at its darkest some of the planets and stars will be visible. The brightest of these will be Jupiter and Aldebaran, look for them. To view this beautiful phenomna [sic], prepare a generous piece of common window glass by smoking it with a match or candle until nearly black, and through this watch the round shadow creep over the face of the sun. This shadow is made by the moon coming between the earth and the sun, and while every new moon makes an eclipse, only those are visible when the Earth, Moon and Sun are in the same straight line, and of those the only total ones are those made when the moon is close enough to the earth for its shadow to reach us. This is seldom the case and therefore the phenoma [sic] is one of the rarest and well worth watching. To see it well prepare your glass today, and when it is at its darkest watch the temperature fall and chickens go to roost.