Solar eclipse Sunday visible from Oregon:
Something strange is about to happen to the shadows beneath your feet.
In the United States, the eclipse begins around 5:30 p.m. PDT. For the next two hours, a Moon-shaped portion of the sun will go into hiding. Greatest coverage occurs around 6:30 p.m. PDT. The partial eclipse ends just before 7:30 p.m. >>> Animated Map | Share Your Photos
Because some of the sun is always exposed during the eclipse, ambient daylight won't seem much different than usual.
Instead, the event will reveal itself in the shadows. Look on the ground beneath leafy trees for crescent-shaped sunbeams and rings of light.
Near the center-line of the eclipse, observers will experience something special: the "ring of fire." As the Moon crosses the sun dead-center, a circular strip or annulus of sunlight will completely surround the dark lunar disk. Visually, the sun has a big black hole in the middle.
The "path of annularity" where this occurs is only about 200 miles wide, but it stretches almost halfway around the world passing many population centers en route: Tokyo, Japan; Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas.
In those locations the ring of fire phenomenon will be visible for as much as 4 and a half minutes.