Expert to tell about eclipse

Six days before this month’s awe-inspiring solar eclipse, a distinguished professor and teaching scholar from Kansas State University will be in Marion to explain how to view the eclipse and why such phenomena seem so rare.

Physics professor Christopher M. Sorensen will talk at 7 p.m. Aug. 15 at Marion City Library’s Santa Fe Room about why eclipses happen and when, where, and how to best experience this upcoming eclipse. Free glasses with which to view the eclipse will be distributed.

The eclipse will occur around 1 p.m. Aug. 21 in Marion, with more than 90 percent of the sun obscured by the moon’s shadow for several minutes. Peak viewing of the longest eclipse duration generally will be along a line from Kansas City to Nashville, but if skies are clear, Marion County still should have a grand view of the phenomenon.