An annular solar eclipse will be happening above us Oct. 14. Spencer Jones, astronomy enthusiast and manager of public programming at Orlando Science Center, talked with the Orlando Sentinel about what to observe — safely — about the sun at the museum and beyond that day.

Don’t look — seriously

Safety first, gang, so don’t look at the sun during the eclipse. In fact, don’t do that anytime, Jones reminds skywatchers.

“Think about what is it that is coming from the sun to your eyeball, right? It’s light. Light is a thing. It doesn’t have mass, but it has energy,” Jones says.

“We see light all the time, bouncing around in rooms, and that’s perfectly fine. But the sun gives us so much light, so many photons, so much energy … it fries your eyeballs. They aren’t prepared to handle that much energy, basically. So, if you were to stare at the sun for a few seconds, you’ll do real serious damage to your eyeballs, possibly permanently.”

How dark will it get?

The path of the upcoming eclipse in the U.S. will start in coastal Oregon and cross down through south Texas. In Central Florida, we’ll experience it at about a 60% rate as the moon moves between Earth and the sun.

“We’ll see about 40% of the sun on max coverage,” Jones says. “But, you know, it’s going to look really, really cool. It’ll look like a crescent moon, but it’ll be the sun, which is kind of trippy.”

We had a similar-intensity of solar eclipse here in August 2017, he says.

“You’re still getting daylight, but it is darker,” Jones says. “It gives kind of weird vibe. But we get that in Orlando all the time. It was like massive cloud coverage [in 2017].”

Science center scene

Orlando Science Center will be open regular hours Oct. 14, but tickets are being sold in advance and online only — not at the museum on eclipse day. There is limited capacity, and the event may sell out.

Eclipse-viewing glasses will be given to folks who sign up to arrive before the solar event ends around 3 p.m.

“We have all kinds of really cool different ways to see the eclipse. We have solar binoculars as well. We’ll be live-streaming it. And then we have physical, big activities and props that we’ll be playing with outside and inside and all over the place,” Jones says.

“The science center is going to offer a way more in-depth view of the eclipse. We’ll have a lot of new activities that are describing the eclipse, getting you hands-on in understanding it in a deeper way than you could otherwise,” he says.

Other options

The eclipse can also be a DIY, work-from-home experience.

“You can use pinhole viewers or even grab a colander from the kitchen, go outside, and it’ll create a shadow on the ground, and you’ll actually be able to see the eclipse through the shadow,” Jones says.

Take two

A total eclipse will be seen in parts of the U.S. in April, this time making a path from south Texas up through Maine.

“Our moon is just the right distance where this October it’ll block out most of the sun, but there will still be a ring around it because it’s not blocking up the full sun,” Jones explains. “Then, in April, the moon will be a bit closer to us, so it will block out the full sun, and that’s a total eclipse. What’s really cool is getting them back-to-back.”

Fine print

Tickets for the science center for Oct. 14 will include access to the entire museum as well as the eclipse activities. It’s a “rain or shine” event (no refunds or exchanges). Folks will be able to monitor the eclipse as it’s live-streamed from other locations if the conditions aren’t right in Orlando. Tickets are $27 ($21 for ages 2-11).

Effects of the eclipse begin at 11:52 a.m., reach their peak at 1:26 p.m. and end at 3:02 p.m.

For tickets or more information, go to OSC.org or call 407-514-2000.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. My Threads account is @dbevil. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.