ALL EYES ON THE FIRST TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE IN THE US IN 40 YEARS
Airbnb setting records as Americans plan travel to 14 states that will see totality; Californians will get only a partial view
Darkness doesn’t usually fall in the middle of the day. So it’s not surprising that many cultures throughout history considered it a bad omen when it did.
But as years went by, the terror morphed into intrigue. Now people are booking their travel — months and even years in advance — to experience it.
That’s certainly the case for one of this summer’s hottest events — a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, viewable from Oregon to South Carolina. Bay Area residents will have to hit the road to see it, unless they’re content with a partial eclipse that will dim our morning sky.
It’s the first time in 40 years that the moon will cover the sun entirely when viewed from the continental United States. People across the country are gathering their eclipse glasses, checking historical weather records and stirring with excitement as they wait for the shadow of the moon to fall over them.
“The sky goes dark, the stars appear,
animals are totally confused because it’s night in the middle of the day — and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime, truly spectacular occurrence,” said renowned astronomer Andrew Fraknoi, a retiring Foothill College professor.
The prime viewing area will be a 60- to 70-milewide diagonal path stretching across 14 states and directly over Madras, Oregon; Casper, Wyoming; St. Joseph, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; and Columbia, South Carolina.
‘Small town eclipse’
“If you know anyone in those states — old friends college roommates, relatives — now’s the time to remind them how much you miss them,” Fraknoi quipped during a recent talk to an overflowing crowd at the college’s Smithwick Theater, where people were sporting T-shirts such as “Eclipse chasers are lunatics & stellar voyeurs.”
Because it’s primarily a “small town eclipse,” Fraknoi said, “I think Airbnb is going to clean up.”
Indeed, tens of thousands of Californians are expected to travel to the eclipse, which occurs on a Monday. Most will head to Idaho and Oregon.
San Francisco-based Airbnb reports that more than 2,500 visitors are booked for home-stays in Idaho the Sunday before the eclipse. “In Oregon, the night before the eclipse will be the biggest night ever for Airbnb for many communities, including Lincoln City and Albany,” said company spokeswoman Jasmine Mora.
“We really underestimated how popular the event will be,” said Leigha Thomas, sales director for the Holiday Inn and Comfort Suites in Albany, Oregon. She said both hotels sold out as soon as rooms became available at the beginning of the year.
One San Jose couple, June and John Stolan, recently bought “eclipse glasses” from Amazon and plan to drive up to Oregon for the eclipse. “We are praying for no clouds,” said June, 61, a recently retired nurse.
If you don’t have a pair of the special glasses that allow you to view the eclipse safely, don’t panic. Many local libraries are handing them out for free, and there are a variety of ways to craft a projection method to reflect the eclipse onto a flat surface.
You’ve probably never heard of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, but this tiny agricultural town is the point where the total solar eclipse will linger the longest — at 2 minutes and 40 seconds.
And that distinction is expected to more than double its population as about 100,000 astronomers and other enthusiasts from as far away as Japan and Argentina descend on ground zero, said Brooke Jung, Hopkinsville’s solar eclipse and marketing and events consultant.
What’s making people take off from their jobs to travel far and wide to be among the cows and empty fields? It’s no doubt the whimsical draw of the darkened sky. An eclipse is an elegant alignment in the orbital dance of the moon, Earth and sun.
Even though the sun is about 400 times larger than the moon, it’s almost 400 times farther away. So the sun and the moon appear to be the same size from Earth — which means that during a total solar eclipse the moon aligns exactly between the sun and the Earth and casts a shadow on our planet.
The small center of this shadow is called the “umbra,” and anyone standing in that area will be able to see a total solar eclipse.
What we will see
The Bay Area — where 70 to 80 percent of the sun will be covered — will be under the broader area of the shadow known as the “penumbra,” which results in a partial eclipse.
“I understand that it’s spooky, kind of. The way the light dims is like we’ve never seen it” before, said Betsy Ross, 73, a retired financial adviser who plans to view the eclipse from her home in Cupertino.
If you miss this eclipse, don’t worry. The next one in the U.S. is almost right around the corner. In 2024, the next total eclipse will travel in an almost opposite diagonal from Maine to Texas.
Two total eclipses crossing the U.S. less than 10 years from one another, astronomically speaking, is one right after the other, said Fraknoi, who noted that it’s been 99 years since a total eclipse has crossed the nation coast to coast.
“Give yourself a pat on the back for being born at this time,” Fraknoi said. “You showed extremely good taste to be alive.”