Partial solar eclipse on March 29: How to see it on LI

The next total solar eclipse viewable on Long Island will begin at 6:05 a.m. — on May 1, 2079.

If you can’t wait that long — and, are willing to settle for what might still prove to be a spectacular tease — you can wake before dawn this Saturday to watch the sunrise, which astronomers said will feature a partial eclipse of the sun. It won’t be as dramatic as the near-total eclipse Long Islanders saw last April 8. Still, astronomy experts said it could still be pretty cool.

At its max, NASA scientists this week said the moon will block out about 22% of the sun visible here on Long Island.

But, the partial eclipse will come early — and it will be brief.

As the official NASA website noted Friday: “Viewers will see a partial solar eclipse in sections of North America, Europe, Africa, northern Asia, small parts of South America, throughout Greenland and Iceland, as well as much of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. In much of the Americas, including the northeastern United States, the partial solar eclipse will already be in progress during sunrise.”

In western Europe and northwestern Africa, NASA said, the eclipse will begin mid-to-late morning, while in eastern Europe and northern Asia it will occur late-afternoon or early evening. While much of the United States will see no eclipse at all, scientists noted, in the Northeast, the duration and the portion of the Sun blocked during the eclipse, will increase the further north and east the viewing location.

The website space.com, an independent space news publication based in New York City, said the best way to understand eclipse coverage areas is to take an atlas of the U.S. and Canada, draw a line from Oakville, Ontario, south to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and all areas west of that line will have no view of any eclipse. Areas to the east will see it and the further north and east you go, more will be visible.

For instance, while viewers in Washington, D.C., will barely notice — just 1% of the sun will be blocked — viewers in Boston will see an eclipse where the moon blocks about 43% of the sun and those in Portland, Maine, will see about 64% of the sun blocked during the event.

The greatest coverage will be in Nunavik, an Inuit area in northern Quebec, where about 94% of the sun will be obscured and where, experts said, usual thick haze could also “redden” the morning sunlight, creating two reddish bull horns rising from horizon — an effect known as “Solar Horns” or “Devil’s Horns.”

On Long Island, the time and duration also will depend on whether you’re in western Nassau or watching in easternmost Suffolk.

According to TimeandDate.com — a Norway-based leader in precise sunrise and sunset times, as well as cloud cover, eclipse and stargazing information — if you plan on watching in Floral Park, the partial eclipse will begin at 5:23:42 a.m. — but won’t be visible until sunrise, which will be at 6:42:47 a.m. The maximum eclipse coverage will be at 6:45:37 a.m., but the entire experience will be over by 7:05:02 a.m.

However, if you’re in Montauk, the eclipse will begin at 5:23:16 a.m., while the sun remains below the horizon — and will first be visible at sunrise, at 6:35:36 a.m. The maximum eclipse will be at 6:38:27 a.m.

It’ll all be over by 7:05:35 a.m.

Experts warn if you plan to watch the partial eclipse you shouldn’t do so without proper eye protection — which means eclipse glasses meeting the ISO 12312-2 international standard. As a post on the official NASA website warned: “Eclipse glasses are NOT regular sunglasses; regular sunglasses, no matter how dark, are not safe for viewing the Sun. Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker.”

NASA also warns that even with approved solar glasses, viewers should never view the sun through a camera lens, telescope, binoculars or any other optical device, because solar rays will be concentrated — and will burn through any filter causing what likely would result in “serious eye injury.”