View the solar eclipse April 8, at The Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center

ELY — Don your solar-approved glasses on April 8, when the Earth, moon and sun do a rare dance across the United States in the form of a solar eclipse. Cedar Rapids will see a partial eclipse, while other areas of the country will see a total eclipse.

The eclipse start time in Cedar Rapids will be 12:46 p.m. Maximum coverage of 85 percent will be reached at 2:01 p.m. The eclipse will end at 3:16 p.m.

The nearest point to Cedar Rapids to view totality will be about 300 miles away in southern Illinois or Indiana. The total eclipse portion is tantalizingly brief. Depending on how close you are to the centerline of the path of the shadow, totality (the moment the moon's shadow completely covers the sun) will last anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes.

The total eclipse will begin in the South Pacific and move through Mexico, the United States and Canada before ending in the North Atlantic. In the United States, it will enter Texas at about 12:30 p.m. (Central Time), move across 14 states and exit through Maine at 3:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). The width of the moon’s shadow covering the sun will be more than 100 miles wide. The entire event is about two and a half-hours from the moment the moon first appears to touch the sun’s edge through totality to when the moon finally leaves the sun’s sphere.

April’s eclipse will be the first total eclipse in the United States since 2017. We won't see another in the lower forty-eight states until 2044 when a few Montana and North Dakota residents will be treated to the sight. In 2045, an annular eclipse will sweep across the lower half of the country from California to Florida.

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Safely View the Eclipse Locally

If you plan to look at the sun, it is very important to wear approved solar glasses. Regular sunglasses do not protect your eyes from ultraviolet light. Looking at the sun, even for a short time, can do irreversible damage to your eyes, so don't take any chances. Solar glasses are available at many outlets around the area for a very modest price.

If you can’t make a road trip, Linn County will still see a partial eclipse with about 85 percent of the sun covered by the moon. The Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center, 1365 Ivanhoe Rd., Ely, southeast of Mount Vernon, is a great place to view the partial eclipse. The Cedar Amateur Astronomers will have the observatory open and solar telescopes trained on the sun. The group also will have free solar viewing glasses for those in attendance. And if the clouds don’t cooperate, the total eclipse will still be livestreamed inside their learning center.

How Often Do Total Eclipses Happen?

Although there will be several partial eclipses in Iowa in the coming years, the next Iowa total eclipse will be 2099 in the far northeast corner of the state. If you don't mind traveling the world, you can see a total eclipse about every 18 months. The chances of seeing a total eclipse on any particular spot on Earth happen on average about once every 100 years.

A solar eclipse occurs whenever the moon comes between the Earth and the sun and casts a shadow. The moon’s orbit around the Earth is tilted slightly — by about 5 degrees. If the moon’s orbit weren't tilted, there would be a total eclipse every month, but the tilt makes it much rarer.

The moon’s orbit around Earth is also slightly elliptical, which means sometimes it's closer to the Earth than at other times. When it is farther away, as much as 12 percent farther, it appears smaller and can’t cover the entire sun. An eclipse during this time is called an annular, and we had one in the southwestern United States last October. In Cedar Rapids, that annular eclipse covered about half of the sun. There will be another annular eclipse in Iowa on June 11, 2048.

The moon is moving away from the Earth — by less than 4 centimeters per year. At this rate, it will eventually be too far away for a total eclipse to happen. You don't need to worry about that for 600 million years. Give or take a few centuries.

Tom Weber of Cedar Rapids is president of Cedar Amateur Astronomers. He has been interested in astronomy and space since elementary school.