How To See Partial Solar Eclipse In RI Skies This Weekend

RHODE ISLAND — It’s worth getting out of bed before sunrise Saturday to see the moon appear to take a bite out of the sun during a partial solar eclipse — if the weather cooperates in Rhode Island.

The eclipse will be visible between 6:13 and 7:17 a.m. in Rhode Island and a dozen others, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia.

The eclipse begins will already be underway at sunrise time Saturday, which is 6:33 a.m. in Rhode Island.

The National Weather Service forecasts calls for cloudy skies and a patchy fog for early Saturday morning.

The solar eclipse, the first of 2025, will also be visible in parts of Canada and eastern North America, Europe, western Africa and northern Asia. The sun will shrink the most in the northeastern U.S., Greenland and eastern Canada.

• Related: 2025 Guide To Meteor Showers, Eclipses, Supermoons And More

According to NASA, coastal areas and high elevations offer the best views because the eclipse takes place at sunrise. In locations farther to the southeast, the eclipse will barely be noticeable, with Washington, D.C., seeing only about 1 percent coverage. The eclipse won’t be visible at all south of Virginia Beach and east of Buffalo, New York, according to NASA.

Here’s what some major cities could see:

• Baltimore (3 percent)
• Boston (43 percent)
• Buffalo, New York (2 percent)
• New York City (22 percent)
• Philadelphia (12 percent)
• Portland, Maine (64 percent)
• Washington, D.C. (1 percent)

The best views in North America are in Nuuk, Greenland (87 percent) and St. John’s, Canada, and Halifax, Canada (both 83 percent).

During a partial solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and Earth. The moon casts a shadow on Earth and only partly blocks the sun, making it appear like a crescent.

“Eclipses are just a game of light and shadow that are played by the sun, moon and Earth,” The Planetarium in Montréal’s Auriane Egal told The Associated Press.

Solar and lunar eclipses happen anywhere from four to seven times a year, according to NASA. Due to the moon's tilted orbit around Earth, they tend to come in pairs: A total lunar eclipse turned the moon red mid-March.

During the eclipse, the sun slowly slims to a crescent as the moon appears to cover it. It may get dimmer.

“It will feel like a particularly cloudy day,” Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mateos with the European Southern Observatory, told The AP.

Unlike a total solar eclipse, there's no totality, so experts say proper eye protection must be worn the whole time. Make sure you have eclipse-viewing glasses from a seller cleared by the American Astronomical Society.

Viewers can also enjoy the spectacle through indirect ways such as making a pinhole projector using household materials. Holding up a colander will produce a similar effect. Peering at the ground under a shady tree can yield crescent shadows as the sunlight filters through branches and leaves.

Another total lunar eclipse and partial solar eclipse will return in September with the best solar eclipse views in Antarctica and New Zealand.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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