On Monday, Aug. 21, the moon passes directly in front of the sun.
"The path of totality stretches from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina." In the direct path, the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun's atmosphere, known as the corona. "During an eclipse, a halo appears around the sun. Outside of the path of totality, observers will see a partial eclipse."
It's been 40 years since a total solar eclipse was visible in the United States.
Forty years ago there was a total solar eclipse visible above the United States. I was alive then; but was a very young child. Barely old enough to be in school but old enough to 'remember' it vaguely.
What I remember is our teacher repeating over and over and over and over how we are NOT TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. And we had black construction paper passed out to us and we cut out paper glasses and poked a pin hole in the center. We had to make sure they fit our faces as these were the 'glasses' we would be using to view the eclipse.
When the time came, the teachers led all the classes outside to stand in a group on the school yard lawn. We all waited around anxiously for 'something' to happen - with our black construction paper glasses on our faces and looking upwards.
I remember it got a 'little bit' dark. I seem to recall looking up at the sun through my paper glasses but it wasn't exciting, wasn't anything a little bitty child was really amazed by so I just looked around me at the other kids... and then it was over and we could go back inside the school and return to our classrooms.
That's pretty much it. That's what I remember from the last 'big' eclipse.
As the eclipse of 2017 draws near I was starting to hear more about it so I had what I thought was a pretty basic and normal (and easy) question; "Where's the path the eclipse will take over the US?".
Dang... my google search turned up all sorts of returns, maps, useless information, weather maps, stupid 'wanna be' writers making a big 'end of the world' proclamation and others selling things eclipse related.
I just wanted to see a simple, plain, boring map of the US with the path easily marked.
Finally on Fox link I found one they featured from Accuweather. Both are sourced below this post.
And because I knew others just wanted a simple map like I did (and may be having a hard time finding it) here it is at the top of this post. There. Quick. Simple. Fast.
In my searching of the Accuweather site I found a list of 10 places to view the eclipse with the time duration as well; which I figured could be interesting to readers too so I will add a snippet of it here but you can find the whole article on their site sourced at the bottom of the post.
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Charleston, South Carolina
Eclipse duration: 1:16 p.m. - 4:09 p.m. EDT
Totality start: 2:46 p.m. EDT
Totality duration: 1 minute and 33 seconds
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Eclipse duration: 1:06 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. EDT
Totality start: 2:35 p.m. EDT
Totality duration: 1 minute and 22 seconds
Carbondale, Illinois
Eclipse duration: 11:52 a.m. - 2:47 p.m. CDT
Totality start: 1:21 p.m. CDT
Totality duration: 2 minutes and 41 seconds
Homestead National Monument, Nebraska
Eclipse duration: 11:33 a.m. - 2:33 p.m. CDT
Totality start: 1:02 p.m. CDT
Totality duration: 2 minutes and 34 seconds
Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska
Eclipse duration: 10:27 a.m. - 1:16 p.m. MDT
Totality start: 11:49 a.m. MDT
Totality duration: 2 minutes and 28 seconds
Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming
Eclipse duration: 10:17 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. MDT
Totality start: 11:36 a.m. MDT
Totality duration: 2 minutes and 18 seconds
Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho
Eclipse duration: 10:02 a.m. - 1:02 p.m. MDT
Totality start: 11:32 a.m. MDT
Totality duration: 30 seconds
Malheur National Forest, Oregon
Eclipse duration: 9:08 a.m. - 11:44 a.m. PDT
Totality start: 10:23 a.m. PDT
Totality duration: 1 minute and 54 seconds
Lincoln Beach, Oregon
Eclipse duration: 9:04 a.m. - 11:36 a.m. PDT
Totality start: 10:17 a.m. PDT
Totality duration: 1 minute and 58 seconds
The Atlantic Ocean
Sources:
foxnews.com/weather/2017/08/14/total-eclipse-towns-stock-toilet-paper-add-cell-towers-ahead-unprecedented/
accuweather.com/en/weather-news/10-unique-locations-to-view-the-total-solar-eclipse-on-aug-21-2017/70002108
