August 21, 2017, a Monday
Mark your calendar and make it a point to see this. Nearly the entire Lower 48 will see at least a partial eclipse that day, with the total eclipse happening roughly 2:20PM Eastern Time. That's just the ballpark, at it will vary a great deal depending upon where you actually are. But you want to be in that path, as close to the middle as possible, but anywhere in that path.
Meaning, if you're within 300-400 miles of that path, you need to make being there a priority. Already you will be hard pressed to find a motel room available anywhere within the path or 100 miles on either side of it. Go ahead get online and try and book a room in Casper, WY for that weekend. Or Hopkinsville, KY. Or Kansas City. You can't. They're all booked. People from all over the world are coming. Casper is already expecting a minimum of 20,000 people to show up, because of the wide open spaces, and it's not even the best place to see it (although that day historically is the least likely place to see it due to no rain or clouds). The longest duration of the totality is a spot 20 miles outside of Carbondale, IL and stretches to Hopkinsville, KY.
You've seen partial eclipses before. Maybe even a 98% partial eclipse. But a total eclipse is one that you can look at with your bare eyes and not have your retinas burned to a crisp. Even at 99.9%, that other 1% will fry your eyes if you look at it without "eclipse glasses." Where I live, my house will get 99.98% of the total eclipse, so that's no good. But if I drive literally 2 miles north I see the totality, but only for 30 seconds. Go another 5 miles and it's 1 minute and 40 seconds. I go half an hour north of the house to where I-24 crosses the TN river at Kentucky Dam and it's 2 minutes, 40 seconds. That's why you want to be as close to the middle of that narrow totality band as possible. Anywhere on I-24 from southern Illinois to Murphreesboro, TN and you're good. If you're in Chattanooga, drive an hour north. In Knoxville, drive half an hour south. In Columbia, SC, stay put.
There are many kinds of eclipses - total solar, partial solar, annular, and lunar, to name the most common. Partial eclipses are pretty common, and you have probably been a part of one of those. Lunar eclipses happen at night, and they can be seen by half the world at the same time. Annular eclipses are much rarer, but you need to have special filters to see them, so many people don't even know they're going on. But a total eclipse - these are extremely rare, extremely beautiful, and the bare-eye view of totality is absolutely unmistakable to anyone in the thin path. They are the Kings of Eclipses, with nothing else able to stand in comparison to.
The last time we had a nationwide band of totality it stretched from SW corner of Washington, through Denver, the Tulsa/OKC area, Jackson MS, the panhandle of FL, and Orlando. That was 1918. The last time a solar eclipse totality touched anywhere on the US was 1991, Hawaii only, and nobody say it because of the clouds. There was one in 1991 that covered four small islands in the Aleutians, but no one saw it because it was raining. In February, 1979 WA, OR, ID, MT, and ND were the only states to see totality, but for most people there it was cold and raining and they didn't get to see it. July, 1972 northern Alaska only. Those who made the trek were rewarded. But you get the idea. They're rare.
After 2017 there will be another one through the US in on April 8, 2024, running from SW Texas Eagle Pass and Del Rio) up through the Midwest, with the middle of the path running most of the length of Lake Erie, and then on up into Maine. Dallas, TX, Russelville, AR, Marion, IL, Indianapolis, IN, Cleveland, OH and Buffalo, NY are in the middle of that path.
There was one in 1970 that stretched from central Florida up the East Coast through Virginia, but was off the coast all the rest of the way to Nova Scotia (Carly Simon, 1972's You're So Vain, "You flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia - to see the total eclipse of the sun.") I was living in Ft Lauderdale at the time and we drove up to just north of Orlando to see it. The partial eclipse that was seen from Ft Lauderdale would have wowed me plenty, but seeing the total eclipse was a "Holy Crap Moment" for everyone who saw it.
Here is an awesome video of a flyover that shows the entire path from Oregon to South Carolina. The first thing that becomes evident is why you want to be as close tot he center of the path as possible and why that spot will give you the longest duration of totality.
Here are some Time bookmarks within the video, so you can skip right to areas that may be meaningful to you:
If I were sitting at the J in Oak Grove the Friday before the eclipse and they called me with a load going to El Paso, I'd almost certainly turn it down. A total eclipse is that rare, that beautiful, and that impressive.
Eclipse2017.org is the Website to get the most information.
Great American Eclipse.com has all the maps. If you click a local map, then click download, you can view that map in incredible detail, including totality durations at different spots within the path.
