National Park Service Gears Up For May 2012 Solar Eclipse

Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 05:14

In the hours before sunset on Sunday, May 20th, a solar eclipse will pass from the coast of the Pacific Ocean at Redwoods National Park east and south to near Lubbock, Texas. National parks – about 30 of them – located on or near this line will be the premier eclipse viewing sites in America.

The eclipse will be merely wonderful at 125 more national parks in 22 states that cover an area west of Lubbock, into Oklahoma and Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas … even Iowa, Minnesota and as far west as Alaska.

To visualize this for the national park system, pull out the NPS map. Draw a line from east of Big Bend National Park up through west Texas and Oklahoma then just below Fort Scott NHS and on north and east clipping the northwest corner of Missouri through Iowa and the left side of Wisconsin to include Keweenah NHP on Lake Superior. Weather and horizon permitting, people in locations west of that line will see at least a partial solar eclipse.

People in Des Moines will see the sun eclipsed by the moon at sunset. And imagine the moon eclipsing the sun with Old Faithful in the foreground, or the Golden Gate Bridge or any other icon of the west framing the eclipse. Alaska Region communications chief John Quinley says mountain climbers at Denali will have an excellent afternoon show.

The center of attention for scientists and serious eclipse watchers – a view of the moon centered on and covering more than 96 percent of the sun – will be visible late in the day to near sunset at six national parks:

Petroglyph National Monument
Redwoods National Park (best view on the beach)
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Canyon de Chelly National Monument,
Zion National Park
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Visitors at Grand Canyon National Park and at Bryce Canyon National Park will see the moon slightly off center as its shadow falls across the sun.

Visitors at Petroglyph National Monument will see the moon centered, and covering 96.5 percent of the sun. This period of “annularity” will last four minutes and 26 seconds from 7:33 p.m. MDT. Since this won’t be a total eclipse, there will be a bright ring of light surrounding the moon. For viewers at Petroglyph, the eclipse will be over as the sun slips below the horizon at about 8:30 p.m.

NPS dark sky rangers are at work developing interpretive programs for park rangers to share with visitors in the days leading up to and including the eclipse, so check back with the eclipse web page. For information on the eclipse for virtually any US location, see this NASA webpage.

The NPS is inviting the national news media to Petroglyph National Monument to report to the rest of the world. The media will have access to a top eclipse viewing site, visitors. and NPS scientists and technicians who will help explain the eclipse and the history of cosmic events in this part of the world.

This is a wonderful opportunity for us to share an exceptional experience with park visitors across much of the western U.S. Several parks already have plans for eclipse programs in the works and some will be joined by astronomy clubs. Visitors will be able to see the eclipse on remote video displays in some parks, through solar telescopes in other parks and many parks and park partners will have solar viewing glasses available. Park rangers will blog about the eclipse as it happens and video and photos will be available on park web sites the day of the eclipse, and on InsideNPS on the Monday after the eclipse.

A total of 154 national parks will provide views of the eclipse, from partial to full annularity. There are 32 national parks where viewers will see full annularity, when the disc of the full moon will eclipse the sun. Parks marked with * are where the moon will be centered on and cover about 96 percent of the sun at annularity:

Full Eclipse