The Associated PressSteve Spalding of Chattanooga squints through the viewfinder of a movie camera for the sun at a Valdosta industrial park as the solar eclipse begins March 7, 1970. On Aug. 21, Valdosta will get about 90 percent of a "total" solar eclipse.

VALDOSTA, Ga. — If the sun goes out in the middle of the day Aug. 21, don’t worry. It’ll be back.

A total eclipse of the sun takes place that day, visible to one degree or another across all of North America. While the eclipse won’t be “total” in Valdosta, the city will see most of the sun vanish as the moon moves between it and the Earth, said Dr. Martha Leake, professor of astronomy at Valdosta State University.

It is the first total eclipse to be visible from the U.S. since 1979, according to the website EarthSky.org.

In fact, it won’t be “total” everywhere. Those wanting to see the whole sun disappear will have to find a spot along a narrow track sweeping from the Pacific Northwest down through the Carolinas. The further away from that track, the less of the sun will be blocked by the moon.

Valdosta can expect to see 90 percent of the sun disappear, Leake said. She plans to see the whole thing vanish.

Leake will travel with a small number of colleagues and students to Francis Marion National Forest, north of Charleston, S.C., to view the the eclipse, weather permitting. The forest sits in the “track of totality” in which the sun completely goes away.

Looking at the sun with the naked eye is always a dangerous proposition, risking vision damage. Leake and her group will be using “eclipse glasses” with special solar filters during the “partial” phases before and after the moment of total eclipse.

She said at the moment the sun is completely blocked, it will be safe for them to glimpse the eclipse very, very briefly without the glasses.

As the sun disappears, temperatures will slide temporarily as much as 10 degrees, she said. 

“When you take away the heater, it gets cold,” she said.

In Valdosta, Dr. Kenneth Rumstay, another astronomy professor, will be on hand to aid the public with safe viewing, Leake said, which includes handing out a number of eclipse glasses.

The first sign of the sun being eaten away in Valdosta should be at 1:11 p.m., with the maximum blockage at 2:43 p.m., she said. The moon should draw clear of the sun at 4:08 p.m.

On March 7, 1970, Valdosta was at the dead center of the “totality track” of another solar eclipse, with visitors from across the country crowding the campus of VSU to see the sun completely vanish for a little while.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.