Wednesday, August 12 Partial Solar Eclipse Viewing at Alpha Ridge Park
David Stein
Partial Solar Eclipse Viewing
Date: Wednesday, August 12
Time: 1:15 PM to 2:28 PM EDT
Place: HAL observatory at Alpha Ridge Park
While Europe gets a total solar eclipse on Wednesday, August 12, we'll also see a sliver of it here in Maryland! We're getting a partial eclipse topping out at about 4% coverage, running from 1:15 to 2:28 PM local time. Not nearly as dramatic as 2024, but still a fun observing opportunity! Weather permitting, we'll be hosting a solar eclipse viewing party at our observatory in Alpha Ridge Park. We plan to open the observatory and project the eclipse live on our monitor, plus have solar-filtered binoculars (and maybe a telescope or two) on hand for safe viewing. It's free and open to everyone, so come on out!
As of now, the 7-day forecast is calling for partly sunny skies with a chance of showers, though that's still pretty rough this far out. If there's any risk of rain during the eclipse window we'll have to keep the dome closed, but if there's even a shot at clear skies I'll be out there with my own gear hoping for at least a lucky break in the clouds.