Along a track that averages about 90 miles in width, the Moon will cross directly in front of the Sun. However, because the Moon will be a bit farther from Earth than average, the dark disk of the Moon will appear slightly smaller than the disk of the Sun, resulting in an annular or "ring" eclipse.

In essence, this is really nothing more than a fancy partial eclipse. It will produce a "penny atop a nickel" effect, with the Sun mimicking a blazing ring of light at maximum effect.

No one should look directly at the eclipse without proper equipment: The ring of sunlight will cause permanent eye damage.

On Dec. 14, the track of the annular eclipse will first strike the Earth smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Virtually the entire annular eclipse track falls over open ocean waters.

The track sweeps as close as 300 miles south of Hawaii, but its only major landfall doesnt come until almost its endpoint. It will then move across a small portion of southern Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica, transforming the Sun into a striking "ring of fire" that will hover above the western horizon near local sunset.

Costa Ricas capital city of San Jose (population: 330,000) actually lies just inside the southern limit of the eclipse track and will experience 56 seconds of annularity at 5:33 p.m. local (central standard) time. Several minutes later the 8,000-mile long eclipse track finally comes to an end in the western Caribbean Sea.

Much of North America as well as northwestern South America will see this as a partial solar eclipse. Exceptions include much of New England, upstate New York, parts of central and northern Canada and central and northern Alaska.

For Hawaiians, this will be a nearly three-hour event from start to finish. At maximum eclipse (9:27 a.m. Hawaii Time) up to 84 percent of the Suns diameter will be eclipsed by the passing new Moon.

Viewers across the western United States will see a shorter, smaller eclipse ranging from a noticeable scallop to a slight nibble taken out of the Suns lower limb at midday, while a similar sight awaits the rest of the United States and much of southern Canada in the late afternoon.

East of the Mississippi River, sunset will come before the eclipse is finished, while the western half of the continent gets an uninterrupted view.

Unlike a total eclipse of the Sun, concentrating its excitement into a few fleeting minutes, a partial eclipse can be watched in a relaxed manner from wherever one happens to be. With proper caution, observations can be made with the protected naked eye, binoculars, or telescopes of any size.

Looking at the Sun is harmful to your eyes at anytime. The danger that an eclipse poses is simply that it may induce people to stare at the Sun, something they wouldnt normally do. The result can be "eclipse blindness," a serious eye injury that has been recognized at least since the early 1900s.

About half of the reported victims of eclipse blindness recover their precious quality of eyesight after a few days or weeks. The other half carry a permanent blurry or blind spot at the center of their vision for the rest of their lives. Fortunately, public warnings by news media have vastly reduced solar eye injuries at eclipses in the last few decades.

During any direct observation of the eclipse, your eyes must be protected by dense filters.

There are several safe approaches to watching an eclipse.

By far, the safest way is to construct a "pinhole camera." A pinhole or small opening is used to form an image of the Sun on a screen placed about three feet behind the opening. Binoculars or a small telescope mounted on a tripod can also be used to project a magnified image of the Sun onto a white card.

Just be sure not to look through the binoculars or telescope when they are pointed toward the Sun!

A variation on the pinhole theme is the "pinhole mirror." Cover a pocket-mirror with a piece of paper that has a -inch hole punched in it. Open a Sun-facing window and place the covered mirror on the sunlit sill so it reflects a disk of light onto the far wall inside. The disk of light is an image of the Suns face.

The farther away from the wall the apparatus is, the better; the image will be only one inch across for every 9 feet from the mirror. Modeling clay works well to hold the mirror in place. Experiment with different-sized holes in the paper. Again, a large hole makes the image bright, but fuzzy, and a small one makes it dim but sharp.

Darken the room as much as possible. And be sure to try this out beforehand to make sure the mirrors optical quality is good enough to project a clean, round image. Of course, dont let anyone look at the Sun in the mirror.

Acceptable filters for visual solar observations include aluminized Mylar. Some astronomy dealers carry Mylar filter material specially designed for solar observing. Also acceptable are shade 14 arc-welders glass, available for just a few of dollars at welding supply shops, or two layers of fully exposed and developed silver-bearing black-and-white negative film.

It is a good idea to test your filters and/or observing techniques before eclipse day.

Unacceptable filters include sunglasses, color film negatives, black-and-white film that contains no silver, photographic neutral-density filters, and polarizing filters. Although these materials have very low visible-light transmittance levels, they transmit an unacceptably high level of near-infrared radiation that can cause a thermal retinal burn.

The fact that the Sun appears dim, or that you feel no discomfort when looking at the Sun through the filter, is no guarantee that your eyes are safe.

After Dec. 14, the next solar eclipse will be on June 10, 2002. It too will be an annular eclipse, and again the eclipse track will pass primarily across the Pacific Ocean.

In fact, apart from passing over the small south Pacific islands of Sangihe and Talaud, the path of next years annularity never touches land. A partial eclipse, however, will be visible over northern and western portions of North America.