Forecasters have said the weather could be cloudy in a large portion of the path of totality.
The eclipse will be visible, weather permitting, along a path that begins in Mexico and then crossing through the United States and Canada. Eclipse fans are gathering in places along the “path of totality,” including the city of Fredericksburg in central Texas, where the total eclipse will occur shortly after 1:30 p.m. (1830 GMT).
That is where Michael Zeiler, a veteran eclipse chaser from New Mexico who has already witnessed 11 total eclipses across the globe, plans to be.
“First-time viewers of a total eclipse will be gobsmacked by the sight,” Zeiler said. “It will be a peak life experience.”
At up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds, this one will last longer than the
total eclipse that streaked across parts of the United States in 2017, which clocked in at up to 2 minutes and 42 seconds. According to NASA, total eclipses can last anywhere from 10 seconds to about 7-1/2 minutes.
Some cities along the path of totality include Mazatlan, Mexico; San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania; both Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, the site of the famed waterfall; and Montreal, Quebec.
A partial eclipse will be visible in North America outside the path of totality.
About 32 million people in the United States live within the path of totality, and federal officials predict another 5 million people will travel to be there.
This will be the ninth total eclipse for Anthony Aveni, author of the book “In the Shadow of the Moon: The Science, Magic and Mystery of Solar Eclipses” and a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, sociology, and anthropology at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
“It’s an interruption in nature’s status quo,” Aveni said. “And it’s an interruption that takes your breath away.”
