August has always been my favorite month. The ocean and lakes in Maine have gotten warm, blackberries and zucchini are ripe, and the Rotary Auction is guaranteed to yield up amazing treasures (my best finds ever: water skis, matching mirrors, roller skates, and the ping pong table my parents picked up for $15 when I was a kid).

The Perseid meteor showers occur this month too (this year, they peak on the 11th and 12th). I have so many fond memories of the August nights I spent watching the sky for shooting stars when I was little. I don’t have as much time to star gaze these days, but I still get out for a few nights every August, set an air mattress outside, and watch the sky with my kids.

My girls and I have checked out the Library’s telescope a few times to help pass the time while we’re waiting for it to get dark enough to see shooting stars. It’s especially fun for looking at the moon and the planets (spoiler alert: it’s not that much fun for looking at stars. They just look like slightly bigger dots of light). If you haven’t taken that home yet, you really should.

Even if you’re not an amateur astronomer like me, you might have heard by now that we’re going to see a solar eclipse on Aug. 21. Maine isn’t in the path of totality for this one, so the sun won’t be fully obscured by the moon, but it’s going to block out about 2/3 of it from our vantage point, which will make it still really neat to see.

Unfortunately, the 21st is a Monday, so the Library will be closed that day. You can pick up a free pair of safe eclipse-viewing glasses any time you come in this month, but we won’t be hosting an event on that day. I’ll be with the kids at Camp Knickerbocker instead, making sure all the little ones get to see the eclipse and no one goes blind.

I am, however, holding two events here at the Library in the weekends leading up to the eclipse. The first is called “Making Binocular Stations for Eclipse Viewing” and will take place on Saturday, Aug. 12, from noon until 1 p.m. upstairs in the Community Room. Bring your own binoculars and I’ll show you how to use one to safely project an image of the eclipse onto paper.

We will NOT be using them to look directly at the eclipse, so don’t get any ideas! That would burn your retinas out and blind you. Your mom meant it when she said not to look directly at the sun with your eyes.

Even sunglasses, which block out anywhere from 30 to 90 percent of visible light, aren’t going to keep your eyes safe. The eclipse-viewing glasses we’re giving out block out 99.9997 percent of visible light. Which makes them great for looking at the sun but really dangerous for driving!

The second program I’m running is called “Making a Pinhole Projector.” This one will take place on Saturday, Aug. 19, again from noon until 1 p.m. in the Community Room. Pinhole projectors are another device you can use to project an image of the eclipse onto a surface.

You might be asking yourself, “Why would I bother to project an image of the eclipse onto paper when I can just look right at it with the nice glasses I’m getting at the Library?” That’s a good question, and I asked it myself. The answer is, the moon begins to pass in front of the sun at 1:30 p.m., reaches maximum coverage at 2:45 p.m., and is completely out of the way by 4 p.m. So, that’s enough time to get bored and feel like trying something else.

During the two August workshops, I’ll also show a quick video about eclipses and do some demonstrations about the relative size and distance between the Earth and moon. So it’ll be educational.

If you’re disappointed that we won’t see the moon completely block the sun here on the peninsula, have hope! There’s another eclipse coming on April 8, 2024, and central to northern Maine will experience totality. And probably a blizzard, too, because April is a terrible month. Certainly it’s no August.

Upcoming events

• Fair Weather Films: Movies on the Library lawn every Friday in July and August at 8:00 p.m. Family friendly; bring a blanket or lawn chair!
• Hallowell Community Band Concerts: Every Thursday, 7-9 p.m., on our lawn.
• Monday Night Book Club: Monday, Aug. 10, 7 p.m. “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult. Facilitator Leslie Volpe, 633-0557.
• Print-A-Pet: Aug. 21 through Aug. 24, 9 a.m. to noon. Draw, print, wire up, and decorate your very own pet! Apply online at bbhlibrary.org/print-a-pet/. Ages 10-15.
• Story Hour: Fridays, 10:15 a.m. Hear a story, make a craft, and sing a song with friends! Ages birth to 5.