Be ready.
If you missed the total solar eclipse that passed over states near us in 2017, plan now to see the one coming up on Monday, April 8. It’s your last best chance—there won’t be another one in this region until one that will pass directly over West Virginia in 2099.
Morgantown is in pretty good location for it: We will have 94.5% totality at 2 p.m. for about two and a half minutes, according to The Eclipse Co.’s helpful interactive map. Assuming a sunny day, we can expect to see several of the phenomena associated with a solar eclipse: crescent shadows—you know what this is like if you ever watched an eclipse using a pinhole projector—as well as sharper shadows, a darkened sky, and a temperature drop of several degrees.
But if you want to experience full totality, you don’t have to go far. It will carve a swath across northern Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Places as close as Akron, Ohio, and Erie, Pennsylvania will get the full show—Akron at 3:14 p.m. for nearly 3 minutes, and Erie at 3:16 p.m. for nearly 4 minutes. Full totality includes such spectacles as confused animal behavior; Baily’s beads, created by the nearly eclipsed sliver of sunlight slipping through the valleys on the moon’s surface; and “the diamond ring,” which is the brilliant flash of the last of Baily’s beads left before totality. If your location gives you a wide perspective on the landscape, you might even see the shadow of the moon race across the surface of the Earth.
For the most complete experience of the eclipse, be sure to have ISO-certified eclipse glasses on hand—they’re inexpensive, and it’s safe to look directly at the sun with them. If you can’t find them locally, you can order from The Eclipse Store. In partnership with The Planetary Society, The Eclipse Store has also created an app that alerts viewers in the path of totality to the moment when various eclipse phenomena should begin, tailored to their precise location. Search “The Eclipse App” on your app store.
This story has been edited to correct the time of totality in Akron, Ohio, and Erie, Pennsylvania.
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