Staring at the sun

From left, Tiburon residents Debbie Miskell, Elizabeth French and Scarlett Bresnahan take in the partial solar eclipse on April 8 outside the Belvedere-Tiburon Library, which handed out viewing glasses. Totality was seen in the U.S. as far west and south as Texas, and as far north and east as Maine.

Locally, max coverage of 33.8% was at 11:13 a.m., per NASA’s Eclipse Explorer map, with the moon fully out of sight at 12:15 p.m.

“There’s something really special about it,” French said toward the eclipse’s start at 10:14 a.m. “And this is our planet, and this is happening right here. We’ve got to check things out.”

She attended with daughter Scarlett, a Tamalpais High School junior.

“Now I want to find out where we can see a full eclipse,” French said earlier.

The next total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous U.S. won’t be until 2044, but mark your calendars for Aug. 12, 2045 — that’s when a total solar eclipse will be visible from Northern California and travel all the way to Florida. While the Tiburon Peninsula and the rest of the Bay Area won’t be in totality’s path, it’ll be close: 95.1% of the sun will be covered on the peninsula.