SYRACUSE, NY (WSYR-TV) — Central New York will get to experience an astronomical double bill a week from today, as there will be a partial solar eclipse next Wednesday afternoon while at night we reach the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower.
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First, it’s another solar eclipse
For starters, though, this solar eclipse is not the same as what happened here in April 2024. Back then it was a total solar eclipse for parts of Central New York where the sun was completely covered by the moon. This time around, the moon will only cover about 10% of the sun in Syracuse.
There will be little if any noticeable change in our sunlight during this eclipse. To view the eclipse, you will need to use approved eclipse glasses. You can NOT look directly at the sun for this eclipse. If you still have glasses leftover from the eclipse two years ago and they are not damaged, you can pull them out for viewing. That is the only way to safely view this eclipse.
This eclipse starts at 12:58 p.m. August 12 when the moon starts to cross the sun, and reaches peak at 1:46 p.m. The eclipse ends at 2:32 p.m., meaning the total time here in Syracuse is a little more than 90 minutes.
Totality from this eclipse occurs only in parts of Greenland, Iceland and also Spain.
But wait, there’s more
The second part of this astronomical double shot comes Wednesday night, August 12, into the 13th. This is when we get the peak of the yearly Perseid meteor shower. If the weather cooperates, we get the advantage of having the new moon which means we won’t have moonlight washing out the fainter meteors.
If our weather conditions are good, find a spot outside several hours after sunset, away from city lights if possible. Give your eyes 10 or 15 minutes to adjust to the dark and start looking to the northeast which is the general direction of the constellation Perseus. Debris from the comet Swift/Tuttle will burn up in our atmosphere, causing the meteors.
There could be upwards of 50 meteors an hour, or about one per minute…