Well if you haven’t heard, we are going to experience a solar eclipse in most of North America next Monday morning.
Along the entire path of totality, from the west coast to the east coast, huge celebrations and viewing events are being planned. In Idaho alone, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to inundate the state.
I was planning to be one of those traveling to Idaho to experience the complete totality experience until I saw I was going to be there with hundreds of thousands of my new, closest friends. Since then, my travel plans have changed to a quiet part of southwest Montana where there will be very few other folks around. Will I get to experience totality? Well, not quite. But where I will be, it will be a 98% totality, which is darn close enough for me. Then I can check another natural event off my bucket list. (Plus I get to skip out of work. Woo hoo!)
The eclipse is going to be visible from Canada to the northern edge of South America. Depending on where you are, you might get the full effect to just a sliver of shadow. To find out exactly what you can expect to see, check out the following website. It gives a full animated video of what the eclipse will look like from your location. The website is at http://amp.timeinc.net/time/4882923/total-solar-eclipse-map-places-view/?source=dam.
Enjoy this rare phenomenon and exercise common sense when viewing the eclipse so you don’t damage your eyes.