Here’s when you can see the solar eclipse in Bradenton on Aug. 21

When a solar eclipse cuts through the United States in two weeks, those in downtown Bradenton will only see a partial solar eclipse.

But even so, Manatee County libraries, including the Central Library in downtown Bradenton, want residents to see the eclipse, which will peak at 2:50 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21, when the moon obscures 79.7 percent of the sun, according to Vox.com.

If a partial solar eclipse won’t be enough, it would mean traveling 388 miles northeast from downtown Bradenton to see the total solar eclipse.

Thanks to a grant from Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning, the county’s libraries will distribute free solar eclipse glasses beginning Aug. 17.

“They won’t be able to look at eclipse without pair of glasses so these enable you to be protected from the sun,” said Chris O’Hara, Manatee County libraries’ youth services coordinator.

With Manatee County receiving approximately 1,000 glasses, the Colorado-based Space Science Institute distributed more than 2 million glasses to 7,000 entities with many being libraries, according to Anne Holland, the Space Science Institute’s community engagement manager.

“We really saw it as an opportunity for libraries to present themselves as purveyors of STEM education,” Holland said. “They are doing active learning everyday. This was really an opportunity to take advantage of something the whole country was going to be excited about.”

Solar eclipses that can been seen in the entire United States don’t happen often — in fact, the last time a total solar eclipse swept the entire U.S. was 1918.

“It’s rare,” O’Hara said. “This is every state in the United States from Atlantic to Pacific is able to view it.”

If you miss the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, the next annular solar eclipse that will be seen in the continental United States, which will be visible from Northern California to Florida, will be Oct. 14, 2023. And the next total solar eclipse will be April 8, 2024, which will be visible from Texas to Maine, according to the NASA website.

With telescopes available to be checked out at all the county libraries, O’Hara is hoping the solar eclipse and the glasses, which will be available at all the county library locations, will spark an interest in astronomy.

“Just turn them onto astronomy and let them know that the library has a lot of tools to explore astronomy and other science interests,” he said.

This story was originally published August 7, 2017 at 11:32 AM with the headline "Here’s when you can see the solar eclipse in Bradenton on Aug. 21."