An annular eclipse is when the moon passes between the sun and the earth—specifically when the moon reaches its farthest point from the earth. (Remember science class? The moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle, so it's not always the exact same distance away.) That means that the moon isn't quite big enough to block the entire sun, leaving a Johnny Cash–approved ring of fire around it. It's like when you throw a pillow on the couch but it doesn't totally hide the wine stain from watching Love is Blind with a full glass.

"The total eclipse is the holy grail of eclipses," says Stephanie Anderson of Seattle astronomy store Cloud Break Optics—but she still thinks the annular ones are plenty exciting.

Just like in 2017, the annular eclipse looks different depending on where you are. Think of going to a concert; the people with center seats may see the singer placed neatly in front of the drum kit, but the folks on the far ends of the aisle will view the two at an angle, far apart from each other. In this case, Oregon has the good seats.

NASA created a map to show the band of totality, or where the moon will be centered. And just like in 2017, it passes south of us. In Eugene, inside that band, it'll happen at 9:13am. 

Listen, we have the Seahawks, ferry boats, and no state income tax. The cosmic trade-off is that the eclipse isn't as exciting here in Washington. Seattle sits at about 80 percent totality, down a bit from our 92 percent in 2017. Again, what we see here will be more of a crescent of sun poking out from behind the moon. And only if it's not cloudy on October 14. But the upside is that since an annular eclipse truly is a partial eclipse everywhere—no one will get that trippy night-is-day totality some saw in 2017—it's not such a letdown.

If you plan to look at the sun, indeed you do. Called solar viewers, the dark material protects eyes from damage. Legit eclipse glasses should adhere to the ISO 12312-2 international standard. Ballard's Cloud Break Optics sells glasses that are guaranteed to be legit.

Oh, and those 2017 glasses you kept as a souvenir are still good if they don't have pinholes or tears—but probably should be replaced if they were shoved under the wobbly leg of a table for the past six years.

When the 2017 total eclipse came to town, the Oregon Department of Emergency Management estimated that the state saw a million visitors, and response planner for the department Curtis Peetz says they consider the state's performance to be a success. This year, however, they expect something around 50,000 celestial tourists. This time  "has a different tenor," says Peetz. "We're not quite in the same place with wildfire season, and it's annular instead of total."

Peetz's office has its eye on Central Oregon, where fewer clouds could mean better eclipse viewing—and more people. The messaging they're passing along from the state department of energy is that people shouldn't try to snag extra gasoline; they expect gas stations to handle any surge as long as people don't try to hoard it.

Though Oregon has a detailed response summary from 2017 to work from, Peetz noted that when his office reached out to neighboring states, like California and Nevada, "they don't seem to have as much concern," he says. With the next total solar eclipse in April 2024 exclusively hitting the eastern half of the country, we need to get our sky gazing in now.