'ring of fire' eclipse is coming. Here's how to watch

At about 10:30 a.m. Mountain Time on Saturday, Oct. 14, the moon will pass in front of the sun above much of the western U.S., creating a blazing "ring of fire" in the sky.

The event is called an annular eclipse, and it will be the first of two eclipses that North America will witness in the coming year. In April 2024, a total solar eclipse, in which the moon will completely block the face of the sun, will similarly cross over a swath of the country. Boulder doesn't lie in the path of the full October eclipse, but Colorado residents can still see an impressive partial eclipse, said John Keller, director of the Fiske Planetarium at CU Boulder. The planetarium will host a viewing party open to the public on the Norlin Quad from 9:30 a.m. to noon as part of CU Boulder's Family Weekend.

Keller is co-director of outreach for NASA's Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Helioshpere (PUNCH). The effort will send four small spacecraft to explore the solar wind, or the radiation that streams from the sun on a near-constant basis. He gave his take on what Coloradans can expect during the upcoming eclipse, and how these astronomical events have drawn in humans for millennia. He also shared tips for viewing these events safely.

"You should never look at the sun at any point without eye protection in the form of solar viewing glasses during the October annular eclipse," Keller said.

To learn more about the science of eclipses, watch the video series Science through Shadows from the Fiske Planetarium.

This is going to be an exciting week for astronomy in the western U.S. What's in store for star gazers?

With an annular eclipse, the moon looks ever-so-slightly smaller than what you'd see during a total eclipse, so the moon will not fully block the sun. You'll see an annulus, or a "ring of fire," around the sun.