The 2023-2024 School Year will bring 2 impressive opportunities to see solar eclipses. This will be the last opportunity to see solar eclipses from the contiguous United States for 20 years!

What can Alabamians expect to see and how should we prepare our schools and communities? 

This website is a work in progress organized by the NASA Alabama Space Grant Consortium. Use this website and the embedded links to learn about the eclipses, and stay tuned as we add educational resources to this page. We invite educators to join our Facebook Group!

Everyone can enjoy eclipses safely

It's important to emphasize that it is NEVER safe to look directly at the surface of the Sun without protection, but enjoying the eclipse safely is possible for all ages with proper preparation. Superintendents, principals, and teachers, please help your students engage safely! Alleviate potential parent concerns by requiring permission slips ahead of time. 

Eclipse Glasses

Only if you have eclipse glasses from reputable vendors can you look at the Sun directly through them. 

The Alabama Space Grant Consortium, in collaboration with AMSTI, and with support from the National Space Club, Aeroject Rocketdyne, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, is purchasing and distributing eclipse glasses to high priority schools around the state for FREE. Priority schools are middle schools, since eclipses are in the 6th grade Science Standards, and schools that have low science achievement scores and have students from disproportionately lower socioeconomic brackets. Check with your AMSTI affiliates to see if your school is eligible!

Librarians can also request eclipse glasses through the SEAL Project. 

Indirect Viewing

• Don't underestimate the fun of indirect viewing with the projection method! Just poke a hole in any piece of paper or cardboard, and then allow the Sun’s light to shine through the hole and shine onto the ground or another piece of paper. DO NOT LOOK THROUGH THE HOLE AT THE SUN. Instead look down at the ground and you will see an IMAGE of the eclipse. This is so easy to do – anyone can do it and it’s a lot of fun! You can get creative with it -- use the holes of a colander, the leaves of a tree, or just crosshatch your fingers! What else can you use?

• What if it's cloudy? Watch the eclipse on NASA Live TV!

Local Experts

Also check out our Resources page for classroom activities, citizen science opportunities, recommended videos, solar science, and more!

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