On Thursday, June 10, 2021 people across Canada, Greenland, the Arctic, and Russia will be treated to an extra special annular eclipse of the Sun. In this type of eclipse, the Moon doesn’t fully cover the solar disk, making the Sun look like it has a ring of fire. If you're not in those areas, don't worry, a partial solar eclipse will be visible across eastern North America, most of Europe, Russia, Mongolia, and even China.

The eclipse will last about 2 hours in each location with the almost totality visible for a few minutes roughly 1 hour into the spectacle. The longest duration of the "ring of fire" will be along the northwestern coast of Greenland near the Naires Stari where the eclipse will last for about 3 minutes and 51 seconds. NASA has an interactive timings map for the path of totality (when the maximum amount of Sun will be covered), so you can plan your viewing.

For those lucky enough to be in one of the regions where the eclipse will be visible remember to be safe if you want to watch the cosmic show unfold and remain unscathed. The Sun, even during an eclipse, can easily damage your eyes, so for Sagan’s sake use appropriate solar glasses (not sunglasses), and/or binoculars and telescopes with the right filters.

If you have none of those, you can still build a solar scope that will allow you to see the eclipse unfold without damaging your eyes. If you are planning to buy glasses, make sure that they have the ISO 12312-2 stamp, the lenses are not scratched, and they have the contact details of the manufacturer on them.

No matter how dark your sunglasses are they are not enough to protect you from looking directly at the Sun, even if partially obscured by the Moon. The same advice goes for anything with lenses from binoculars to cameras all the way up to telescopes. Do not burn your eyeballs! That’s not an overstatement. The Sun through a telescope can quite easily cook your eyeball.

If you are not in the areas that will experience the eclipse, worry not. There are a few ways to follow the eclipse online. For the partial eclipse and expert commentary, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich in London is doing a live stream on its channel.

You can also check out the livestream curated by the Virtual Telescope Project showing the annular solar eclipse as it happens, below.