'Ring Of Fire' Solar Eclipse Coming Thursday

LONG ISLAND, NY — Long Islanders and others across the northern hemisphere will have the chance Thursday to see a partial solar eclipse at sunrise— and in some parts of the world, a "ring of fire" will be visible.

According to NASA, a solar eclipse takes place when the moon moves between the sun and earth, leaving the earth in shadow and either fully or blocking the sun in some places. During this annular eclipse, the moon looks smaller than the sun in the sky; because the sun is not fully blocked, it looks like a larger disk atop a larger disk, creating what seems to be a "ring of fire" around the moon, NASA said.

Residents in Canada, Greenland, and northern Russia will experience the annular eclipse, NASA said.

But Long Islanders and others in the eastern United States will still get the chance to see a partial eclipse: While that ring of fire won't be visible, a partial solar eclipse should be apparent, before, during and right after sunrise, NASA said.

"This means that viewers will need to get a clear view of the horizon during sunrise in order to see the eclipse," NASA said.

For people who live in New York City, eclipse magnitude — the percentage of the sun's diameter covered by the moon — will reach 80 percent and last for just over an hour past sunrise. Sunrise on Long Island Thursday takes place at 5:21 a.m.

The June 10 eclipse is expected to last just over an hour and a half— specifically, about 100 minutes. It will start at sunrise in Ontario, Canada, and will follow a path across the northern reaches of the globe, reaching its midpoint over northern Greenland — when the "ring of fire" will be most visible. It will then continue over the North Pole, ending at sunset over northeastern Siberia.

The middle or annular "ring of fire" stage of the eclipse will last a maximum of 3 minutes, 51 seconds, according to EarthSky.org.

To watch the partial eclipse, be safe: Gazing at the sun without eye protection can permanently damage your eyes and even cause blindness. You should also never use optical devices such as binoculars or telescopes, and do not even think about using your sunglasses to watch.

Other things you should not use to look directly at the sun include: polarized filters, smoked glass, exposed color film, X-ray film or photographic neutral density filters.

A pinhole projector is a safe, tried-and-true option. The Exploratorium in San Francisco explains the easiest way to make one.

A solar eclipse in 2017 sparked a flurry of excitement, with viewing across Long Island as people donned eclipse glasses or used homemade eclipse viewers to witness the event.