Solar eclipse coverage online & on TV

If you don’t have safe glasses to watch the (partial in this area) eclipse Monday, you can feel the moment on TV.

NEW HAVEN » If you don’t have safe glasses to watch the (partial in this area) eclipse Monday, you can at least feel the moment on TV.

PBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, NASA Television and the Science Channel, not to mention local stations, are planning coverage of the first solar eclipse visible across the United States in 99 years.

Most TV coverage begins Monday around 1 p.m. as the eclipse begins in the West. We’ll peak around 2:30 p.m.

We know of one family that booked a trip two years ago to Yellowstone Park to coincide with the eclipse, and in our own trip to the park in June, we saw souvenir stores there gearing up with displays of books and glasses. That area of Wyoming is in the swath of land that will see a total eclipse, if it’s not cloudy.

For a recap of the rare event, the PBS series “Nova” will present “Eclipse Over America” at 9 p.m. Monday, as scientists and citizens alike observe the first total solar eclipse to traverse the U.S. mainland in more than a generation. Being a great science program, “Nova” will also explore the storied history of eclipse science and follow current, cutting-edge research into

the solar corona, producers say.

Online, David Muir will host “The Great American Eclipse,” two hours of live coverage on abcnews.com. The NASA feed will be available on several platforms, including Facebook.

And speaking of livestreaming, Connecticut storyteller Tom Lee of Chester, a frequent performer in Connecticut schools, libraries and museums, will be part of an event at Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky Mountains National Park that will include astronomers, an astronaut and performing artists to help audiences of all ages interpret the science and human experience of the eclipse. It will be livestreamed as a four-hour broadcast at livestream.com/accounts/7167144/solareclipse2017-GreatSmokyMountains.

COURTESY OF PBS Composite image of totality shows the corona and the huge coronal loops caused by the sun’s magnetic field during the 2008 eclipse over Mongolia.