The shadow of today’s eclipse crosses into south Texas at 1:27 P.M. Central, and ends in Maine about an hour later at 3:35 P.M. Eastern. The biggest storyline this weekend was cloud cover, and would the whole thing be a bust? Here’s some other eclipse-related stuff we’ve been tracking . . .
1. A poll found half of Americans watched the last total solar eclipse in 2017. Most of the country will need to wait until 2045 for the next one. (Alaska will get one in 2033. Also, Montana and North Dakota in 2044.)
2. The path of totality is crossing over a few cities and towns with perfect names: Shadowland, Texas, Moon, Oklahoma, Corona, Missouri, Sun Valley, Ohio, Moon Beach, New York, and Eclipse Island in Canada. (It was named that after explorers saw an eclipse there in 1766.)
(Some Christian influencers have also been claiming seven Biblical cities named Nineveh were in the path, and that it meant the Apocalypse was coming. It’s actually passing through just two towns with that name.)
3. A handful of people will get to brag about seeing the eclipse from 30,000 feet up. Delta scheduled a flight from Austin to Detroit that aligns with the path of totality. The last few seats sold for more than $1,100 one-way.
4. Do you need to do anything to protect your PETS from an eclipse? Unless your dog normally likes staring directly into the sun, probably not.
5. That said, NASA is running a big study today to look at how animals react to the eclipse. As the temperature drops and it gets dark, birds and other wildlife tend to act funny because they think it’s nighttime.
6. This seems dumb, but it’s not: “Could the eclipse disrupt cell service?” Not the eclipse itself. But an influx of tourists along the path of totality could overwhelm cell towers in some spots.
7. All those tourists are also why we’ve seen so many emergency alerts about the eclipse over the past month. A lot of small towns along the path aren’t used to having so many people around.
8. Some schools around the country canceled class today. Partly because they didn’t want to be responsible for kids staring at the eclipse and hurting their eyes.
9. Conspiracy idiots have been telling people to just stare at the eclipse with NO eye protection, because of course they have. Not sure who needs to hear this, but don’t do that.
10. NASA felt the need to debunk a myth that you can’t eat during an eclipse. (???) The idea is it somehow poisons food, because the radiation from the Sun is different. It’s not true, so feel free to pop some popcorn while you watch it.
11. In other food news: A few restaurant chains have deals today. Burger King has buy-one-get-one Whoppers, Chili’s has a free appetizer deal, and Pizza Hut has a $12 pizza deal called “Total Eclipse of the Hut”.
12. Fun fact: There are good and bad colors to wear during an eclipse. Red and green stand out in low lighting and look best in photos. Black, white, gray, and brown are the worst colors to wear.
