‘ Two minutes of astronomical awesomeness’ awaits

Eyes going skyward for total solar eclipse

A swath of the U. S. from Oregon to South Carolina already was drawing crowds Sunday in anticipation of the nation’s first coast- to- coast total solar eclipse in almost a century.

But just about everyone will be an astronomer for about two minutes on Monday.

Millions of Americans are traveling to the “path of totality.” That’s the path where the moon will completely cover the sun, and it will first reach the USA in the area of Salem, Ore., and sweep through myriad cities and towns on its way to Charleston. Those peering at the sky from outside the golden path will see a partial eclipse as the moon covers a portion of the sun’s disk.

South Carolina was expecting as many as 2 million visitors to watch the eclipse. It’s the prime location for folks along the Eastern Seaboard, home to more than 100 million Americans. Charleston is the last big city that will see the total eclipse.

A flight Sunday from Washington to Charleston was packed with eclipse tourists. Chelsey Barrett of Greenbelt, Md., was traveling with a large family contingent. Because of the gloomy forecast, they decided to make the threehour drive to Greenville for what they hoped would be a clearer view.

Beach towns such as Edisto Beach, about an hour southwest of Charleston, were seeing a boom in business. A group of friends from Maryland rented a house there for the week just to watch the eclipse.

“When we learned of the solar eclipse, the middle- age nerds among us were giddy with excitement,” said Allison Leaver of Silver Spring, Md. “We couldn’t wait for a trip to the beach together and the joy of inflicting true experiential learning on our nine teenagers.

“They’re almost as thrilled as we are to be making the pilgrimage south for two minutes of total darkness,” Leaver said.

Jenny Kelly, also of Silver Spring, said: “It’s a long way to drive for two minutes of astronomical awesomeness.”

Nebraska was expecting more than 500,000 would- be astronomers from around the world for the solar extravaganza, the Omaha World- Herald reported. That’s a big number for a state with fewer than 2million residents.