SPOKANE, Wash. — The Great American Solar Eclipse is right around the corner. The Inland Northwest will have a 26% totality since we're the farthest from the eclipse pathway.
However, that's not stopping eclipse fans like Paul Yost.
Yost serves as the vice president of the Spokane Astronomical Society. He hopes the clouds go away, to see the partial eclipse in the sky on Monday. Yost had been interested in astronomy since he was a kid.
"I'll be taking the solar telescope and setting it up for my grandson, I also have welding glass that will be able to look directly at the sun," Yost said. "My first telescope got me started in astronomy. My grandfather gave it to me,"
He remembers watching the total eclipse in 2017, a moment he'll never forget.
"Just all the physical phenomenon that goes on during the eclipse and to have the sun completely blocked out," Yost said. "The eclipse is truly amazing. I mean, just, this orb blocking out the sun," Yost said.
A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. In Spokane, we'll only get a fraction of Monday's eclipse.
Gonzaga physics professor Nicole Moore said people should still be careful when looking at the eclipse.
"Definitely do not look straight toward the sun," Moore said. "It can also cause blind spots in the center of your vision or near the center your vision."
Moore said the best way to watch the eclipse is to use solar eclipse glasses, or by making a homemade pinhole camera.
"You can use any piece of cardboard, something stiff though. Or card stock, probably not printer paper. Then cut out a little square, put some foil in, and poke a hole through the foil," Moore said.
Luckily for Yost, he has a solar telescope that can look directly into the sun.
The entire eclipse event will take place for about two hours late Monday morning in Spokane. The highest percentage of eclipse coverage will take place right around 11:35 A.M.
KREM 2 reached out to the Mobius Discovery Center and the Spokane Library system if they plan on doing anything for the eclipse. But they said they will not since Spokane is not in the direct line of the eclipse.
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