A comprehensive guide to watching Monday's solar eclipse

While we won't be in the "path of totality", Osceola County will get to experience at least a good deal of this current solar eclipse Monday.

In our area, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth at 57.7 percent totality around 3:03 p.m. It will begin at 1:47 p.m. and end at 4:17 p.m. The moon will "crescent" the sun on the right side. 

If you want to travel -- get in the car, like, now -- areas from southwestern Texas to the northeast, through major cities like Houston, St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Augusta, Maine, will be in the path of where the sun will be in impressive 90-99 percent totality of the moon.

The last significant solar eclipse in our area was in late August of 2017, which affected the sunlight and dropped the daytime temperature for about a half hour. The sunlight looked odd, and animals will tend to act abnormally and not process what is going.

If you are going to watch Monday's eclipse, scientists and experts say you will need eye protection, even beyond your regular sunglasses. Looking at a solar eclipse without proper protection may cause serious eye damage, including blurry vision that can last months, or even a permanent condition some call “eclipse blindness.”

Use certified solar eclipse glasses, or a homemade projector, as experts say only way to safely view the Sun – eclipsed or not – is to either project or filter the Sun's rays. You can see how to make a projector here.

And, if you're willing to wait a bit, astronomers are currently predicting that a total eclipse will go directly over Central Florida on or around Aug. 12, 2045.