North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun on Monday, Aug. 21. Northern Michigan University’s Physics Department is offering area residents an opportunity to safely view this area’s partial solar eclipse through a telescope equipped with a sun filter at the NMU Observatory Dome. This free event is scheduled from 12:30-3:30 p.m.

Visitors should enter the rotunda entrance at NMU’s West Science Building and follow directional signs to the catwalk of the Observatory Dome. Overflow visitors will be able to view NASA streaming video of the eclipse in a nearby classroom.

The sun filter blocks out more than 90 percent of the sun’s light, according to Dave Donovan, head of the NMU Physics Department.  

“I’ve been here 25 years and don’t know when the last total eclipse in Marquette was,” Donovan said. “It takes 18-1/3 years to come back to the same orientation. It takes 56 years to repeat the path again. Things have to align right for this to happen.”

For more information, contact Donovan at 227-2453 or ddonovan@nmu.edu .