Solar eclipse mania is sweeping across the U.S., especially along the path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina. Hawaii won’t get the full effect of Monday’s event, but dawn risers will see a partial eclipse, with about one-third of the sun to be blocked by the moon.

According to the Bishop Museum: The sun will rise here at 6:15 a.m. Monday; start looking to the northeast. Maximum coverage here is expected to be at 6:45 a.m., with the partial eclipse to be over by 7:25 a.m. Hawaii won’t see another partial solar eclipse until April 2024.

Remember, never look directly at the sun. Bishop Museum is sold out of solar eclipse viewers — but Astronomy magazine shows how to build a safe pinhole viewer. Happy viewing!

‘Whaling walls’ caught up in dispute over contract

Those humpback whales you see from the H-1 freeway by the airport, painted on a building by the famed artist Wyland, may be as endangered as the real things once were.

Wyland, who painted two murals of whales on either side of the Airport Center building in 1999, is embroiled in a dispute with Hawaiian Airlines, which recently acquired the building and wants him to sign a contract to restore the work as part of necessary building repairs.

But Wyland didn’t like the contract’s terms. Hawaiian, he said, is “a billion-dollar, greedy corporation trying to bully an artist who’s trying to stand up for artists’ rights.”

Whoa. Let’s hope things cool off and the parties make an amicable deal.