Don’t be alarmed Monday if at midday, pets take a nap, animals suddenly become still and everyone around you is wearing strange looking glasses and are looking upward toward the skies.

Hopefully, everyone in the area will remember to be properly equipped and will be among those looking upward at one of nature’s rare astronomical phenomenon visible in this area.

On Monday, Albany and Clinton County will be just outside of the path of a total solar eclipse that will occur beginning at about noon and ending some three hours later, just before 3:00 p.m.

Beginning here at 12:01 p.m. and ending at 2:56 p.m., viewers of the eclipse will see the greatest blockage of the sun – also referred to as the degree of “totality” at precisely 1:31 p.m.

The solar eclipse that has been in the headlines for the past year or so, will occur when the earth and sun will be lined up with the moon’s path as it passes across and causes it’s shadow to pass across the surface of the earth.

Being billed as “The Great American Eclipse”, a large portion of Kentucky will be in the path that will involve 100 percent, or a total, eclipse of the sun.

While Clinton County is just outside of the path where “totality” will occur, the phenomenon should still be spectacular here.

According to a host of sources, Albany’s involvement in next Monday’s eclipse should be to a degree just above 99 percent of total blockage of the sun by the passing moon.

Even if that isn’t enough to keep you close to home, a short trip to the south would put you in the path where 100 percent blockage will occur – with Livingston, Tennessee being the closest town where it is predicted that 100 percent coverage will occur.

The first “coast to coast” total solar eclipse that has occurred in the past 99 years, Monday’s event has brought a vast amount of attention to Kentucky, which lies directly in the path of the event.

Hopkinsville, in far western Kentucky, has been named as the city that will be involved in the longest span of eclipse totality, with the length of total blockage of the sun by the moon expected to last for two minutes and 40 seconds.

In Clinton County, the sun’s blockage of the sun should last for about 90 seconds.

Even with cloudy skies that could block a clear view of the sun and solar eclipse, the event will still produce darkening skies and a drop in temperature that could amount to as much as 10 degrees when the eclipse is at it’s greatest point.

The most important thing to remember about Monday’s solar eclipse – aside from when it begins and when it ends, is of course to protect your eyes from the harmful effects that can be suffered from looking directly at the sun.

The best way to insure protection during Monday’s eclipse viewing is to use a pair of ISO certified eclipse viewing glasses.

The American Optometric Association (AOA), America’s family eye doctors, is urging Americans to view the eclipse with proper eye protection to avoid any temporary or permanent eye damage from the sun.

To ensure spectators won’t miss the remarkable sight, the AOA is sharing a few tips for safe viewing:

• Get centered and enjoy the view. Within the path of totality, you can safely witness the two or more minutes when the moon completely covers the sun with the naked eye. Otherwise, your eyes should always be protected by verified viewing tools. Never look directly at the sun without eye protection, even briefly. Visit eclipse.aas.org to access eclipse duration charts.

• Know your duration. Outside of the path of totality, always use solar filters. O.D.s want to reinforce that the only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters or other ISO-certified filters, such as “eclipse glasses” or hand-held solar viewers. The AOA encourages ordering solar eclipse glasses in advance and recommends referring to the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) site for a list of manufacturers.

• Be aware of harmful solar exposure. If you stare at the sun without protection, you may experience damage to your retina (the tissue at the back of your eye) called “solar retinopathy.” This damage can occur without any sensation of pain, since the retina does not have pain receptors. The injury can be temporary or permanent.

The web has dozens of sites that are dedicated to Monday’s “Great American Eclipse” with vast amounts of additional information available.

One of the best sites to get started with your own research that will offer up additional sites depending on your questions or the level of information you desire is: aoa.org/2017eclipse.

Another fact-filled web site is provided by the U.S. government agency NASA: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/

NASA has provided media outlets such as the Clinton County News with an informational packed press kit.

Among the information in that kit was a host of solar eclipse “fun facts” about Monday’s Great American Eclipse.

Eclipse Fun Facts

• On August 21, 2017, all of North America will view, weather permitting a partial eclipse, when the moon obscures part of the sun.

• A total eclipse will be viewable throughout a 70-mile wide path that crosses 14 of the United States from Oregon to South Carolina.

• The umbra (or dark inner shadow) of the moon will be traveling from west to east from almost 3,000 miles per hour (in western Oregon) to 1,500 miles per hour in South Carolina

• The last total eclipse in the United States occurred on Feb.ruary 26, 1979. The last total eclipse that crossed the entire continent occurred on June 8, 1918.

• The last time a total solar eclipse occurred exclusively in the U.S. was in 1778.

•Experiencing a total solar eclipse where you live happens on average about once in 375 years.

• 12.2 million Americans live in the path of the total eclipse. Of course, with visitors, that number will be much higher on August 21!

•About 200 million people (a little less than 2⁄3 the nation’s population) live within one day’s drive of the path of this total eclipse. In addition, millions of Americans will be able to view a partial eclipse, weather permitting.

•The lunar shadow enters the West Coast at 9:05 am. PDT, and Lincoln City, Oregon will be the first place in the continental U.S. to see the total solar eclipse, beginning at 10:15 a.m. PDT.

•Carbondale, Illinois will experience the longest eclipse duration, clocking in at two minutes, 43 seconds, beginning at 1:20 p.m. CDT.

• Hopkinsville, Kentucky will view the greatest eclipse – that is, where the sun, the moon and Earth line up the most precisely.

• Charleston, South Carolina will be the last place in the continental U.S. to see the total solar eclipse, ending at 2:48 p.m. EDT.

•The lunar shadow will exit the East Coast of the U.S. at 4:09 p.m. EDT.

•11 spacecraft, over 50 NASA funded high-altitude balloons, numerous ground based observations and citizen scientists will capture a wealth of images and data that will be made available to the public before, during, and after the eclipse.

•Total solar eclipses offer unprecedented opportunities to study Earth under uncommon conditions. The sudden blocking of the sun during an eclipse reduces the sunlight energy that reaches the Earth. Scientists stationed in Columbia, Missouri and Casper, Wyoming will measure the radiant energy in the atmosphere from the ground and in space. Their goal is to improve our understanding of how the sun’s radiant energy within the Earth’s atmosphere changes when clouds, particles, or the moon block sunlight from reaching the Earth’s surface.

•Scientists have made extensive atmospheric radiant energy measurements during eclipses before, but this is the first opportunity to have coordinated data from both the ground and from a spacecraft located one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth that can see the entire sunlit Earth during an eclipse.

•These quick-changing conditions can affect local weather and even animal behavior.

For example, orb-weaving spiders were observed dismantling their webs during a 1991 eclipse in Mexico.

Viewing Safety:

The only safe way to look directly at an uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special – purpose solar filters, such as eclipse glasses or hand-held solar viewers. Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are NOT safe for looking at the sun.

It is safe to look at a total eclipse with your naked eyes, ONLY during the brief period of totality, which will last just a minute or two during the Aug.ust21eclipse.

It is NOT safe to look at the sun through the viewfinder of a camera or an unfiltered telescope.

You may, however, safely look at the screen of your smart phone or digital camera focused on the eclipse, though you are unlikely to get a good view.

An alternative method for safe viewing of the partially eclipsed sun is pinhole projection. In this method, you don’t look directly at the sun, but at a projection on a piece of paper or even the ground.

For example, cross the outstretched, slightly open fingers of one hand over the outstretched, slightly open fingers of the other. Do not look at your hands, but at the shadow of your hands on the ground. The little spaces between your fingers will project a grid of small images, showing the sun as a crescent during the partial phases of the eclipse.