Solar Eclipse 2017: When To Watch In New Jersey, Best Viewing Tips

How, when and where to see the solar eclipse in New Jersey. Plus, viewing safety tips.

Reprinted from FB / By Tom Davis (Patch Staff)

New Jersey will get plenty of exposure to the solar eclipse on Monday, Aug. 21. The big questions are: Where can you see it? And when? And what steps do you need to take so the light doesn't damage your eyes?

The zone for seeing it stretches across the country. While the prime exposure areas where a total solar eclipse is expected is in the Southeast and Northwest, New Jersey will have some prime viewing times. Enough of the eclipse will be visible that Rutgers and NASA scientists are urging potential viewers to take precautionary steps.

Here are the prime exposure times and places in New Jersey:

• A partial eclipse will begin at about 1:20 p.m., peak at about 2:45 p.m. and end shortly before 4 p.m. on Aug. 21.
• The moon will block about 70 percent of the sun at the state’s northern border with New York, near High Point in Sussex County.
• The farther south you go, the more you'll be exposed. The moon will be block about 80 percent in Cape May.

See more specific viewing times below

Carlton “Tad” Pryor, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, says New Jersey should know when the eclipse is here, as long as the weather cooperates, even if it's not a total eclipse.

“A total solar eclipse is always very dramatic,” Pryor said in a release. “The sky gets dark, animals and birds go quiet as if it’s nighttime and it’s a little bit cooler outside. The partial solar eclipse that will be visible in New Jersey is much more subtle, but will be noticeable if you know what to look for.”

Tips for Safe Eclipse Viewing

Because it is unsafe to look directly at the sun, Pryor said anyone wishing to see the phenomenon must protect their eyes with specially made and certified filters or by observing the eclipse indirectly.

Direct viewing can be done safely with "No. 14 arc welder glass" or with eclipse viewing glasses that meet the following criteria outlined by NASA:

• Have certification information with a designated ISO 12312-2 international standard
• Have the manufacturer’s name and address printed on the product
• Not be used if more than three years old or with scratched or wrinkled lenses

Homemade filters or sunglasses – even very dark ones – are never safe for looking directly at the sun, according to Pryor. There are reports of potentially unsafe eclipse glasses appearing for sale, so be sure to buy eclipse viewers from reputable vendors (click here to find them).

Pryor offered a few suggestions for safe, indirect viewing.

• If the sky is clear at around 2:45 p.m. on the day of the eclipse, stand in a leafy tree’s shadow and look at the ground. The smallest spots of sunlight will make little crescent shapes, showing the sun’s apparent shape as the moon crosses in front.
• Another method is to make a small hole in a piece of cardboard with the tip of a pencil or pen and project the light onto a white piece of paper, he said. For a better view, put the hole over a mirror and reflect the light onto a more distant white piece of paper or white surface.