Most skygazers in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina will get front row seats to the upcoming total solar eclipse - if weather permits, according to NASA, which has provided a solar eclipse map and diagram to show the times of totality. “All of a sudden now the sun, which was too bright to look at seconds ago, is replaced by this black disk with this ghostly halo around it, which is just exquisitely beautiful.” “Flowers tend to close up like it’s nighttime. The sudden change confused ancient peoples and still throws animals and nature for a loop. You just go, ‘Wow.’”Įspenak said it doesn’t become pitch-black outside the sky looks more like it would in the evening, about 30 minutes before sunset. “As totality begins, and the shadow sweeps over you, the hairs on the back of your neck and arms stand up. You feel something in the pit of your stomach like something is wrong in the day, something is not right,” he said in a recent interview with TIME. Espenak knows a thing or two about total solar eclipses, having experienced 27 of them in all seven continents over the course of his 65 years. Noah Petro, NASA’s lunar expert at the Goddard Space Flight Center.ĭuring a total solar eclipse, the skies darken suddenly and the air gets noticeably colder, facing by about 10✯ (5.5✬), says Fred Espenak, a famed eclipse expert and retired NASA astrophysicist. Lunar eclipses are more common than solar eclipses, according to Dr. The event is different from a lunar eclipse, which occurs when the Earth passes between the sun and moon and blocks sunlight from reaching the moon. In August, all of North America will experience a partial eclipse but only some states will get to witness the total eclipse. However, a partial eclipse - which happens when the moon only blocks a portion of the sun - usually lasts about two to three hours. The phenomenon typically only lasts for about two minutes for those standing within the eclipse’s path of totality. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming sky show: What is a total solar eclipse?Ī total solar eclipse, or total eclipse of the sun, happens when the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth and completely covers the entire face of the sun.

How to see the eclipse on august 21st