This isn’t like the sort of “once-in-a-lifetime” event that car dealerships and furniture stores offer once a month. No, this is indeed a special event you won’t want to miss, so mark your calendar for August 21. It’s the first total solar eclipse to happen over the lower 48 States in 99 years (99 years!). The last time this happened was June 8, 1918. Did anyone else just get chills?
According to The Washington Post, “The sun will disappear for about 2½ minutes, beginning in Oregon about 10:15 a.m. local time; the phenomenon will move eastward, ending an hour and a half later in South Carolina. In between, the eclipse will be visible from Grand Teton and the Great Smoky Mountains national parks, from St. Louis and Kansas City and Charleston, S.C., and all points in between.”
The last time most Americans viewed a total solar eclipse was in 1991. But this year, some 500 million people will be able to see the total solar eclipse in some shape or form, according to NASA. The organization estimates that roughly 391 million people in America, 35 million people in Canada and 119 million people in Mexico (plus people in Central America, South America and some parts of Europe) will be able to view this lunar event.
- Brinke Guthrie, SimpleMost.com