A confession: I wasn’t getting all that excited about the total solar eclipse a few weeks ago.
Then, I learned of people traveling for many miles to experience the total solar eclipse. And, a friend asked me what kind of filter I’d be using on my drone to capture the eclipse. Finally, people began sharing stories of the last time they’d experienced a total solar eclipse (2017), and it was like it happened yesterday.
It all began to make me wonder whether in our troubled and challenging times, the eclipse of 2024 might just bring us together with a shared experience that has nothing to do with politics, epidemics or disasters, man-made or natural.
Happily, I won’t have to travel to experience an almost total solar eclipse tomorrow while at home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Indeed, all Americans are likely to experience something. But, for those living along a 115 mile-path from Texas to Maine a total solar eclipse will be experienced. I learned this is called “the path of totality” where the Sun will be behind the Moon for about 4 ½ minutes. During this time, the 30 million Americans living along the path of totality will witness a total solar eclipse, and everyone in America will experience at least a partial eclipse.
Folks, the Sun will be turned off for 4 ½ minutes producing a shared experience for us all – this is a big deal!
It tops any Super Bowl audience, the March Madness viewership, even Taylor Swift!
We can only hope that this moment that brings us all together might keep us a little closer and less divided for a time. Wouldn’t that be nice!
To read more about all of this, I suggest reading an article by David Baron: CLICK HERE.
More scientific information is shared by Kasha Patel: CLICK HERE.
Finally, there is a unique way to experience this event with livestreams provided by the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project for those who want to see what it looks like from 84,000 feet above the planet.
Two things:
1) DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN….the damage can be permanent!
2) Take a moment and submit a comment sharing whatever you experienced with the light dimmed where you are when the total solar eclipse occurs.
Craig Fuller served four years in the White House as assistant to President Reagan for Cabinet Affairs, followed by four years as chief of staff to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Having been engaged in five presidential campaigns and running public affairs firms and associations in Washington, D.C., he now resides on the Eastern Shore and publishes DECADE SEVEN on Substack.
Vic Pfeiffer says
Today (eclipse day) we’re flying non-stop from Baltimore to San Diego – right through the total eclipse path. Our plane departs at 2:05pm. We’ve got our eclipse glasses so we’ll see what we see. Plus it’s my wife’s birthday. “Cosmic”, no!?!?