April 5 (UPI) — People living in at least 15 U.S. states will be able to view a rare total solar eclipse Monday, the first in seven years and last for two decades.
The total eclipse will begin as the sun comes up over the Pacific Ocean and first be visible in the continental United States in Bell County, Texas at 1:27 p.m. CDT, culminating in Maine at 3:35 p.m. EDT.
People living along the path of the total solar eclipse will be able to view the cosmic event for 2 to 4 minutes, but will need to use protective eyewear to do so.
Millions of others will be able to see a partial solar eclipse, depending on local weather conditions at the time.
Parts of Michigan, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Missouri, Indianapolis, Kentucky, Texas, Maine and Illinois are in the direct path of the total eclipse.
San Antonio, Austin and Dallas are some of the biggest cities in Texas that fall in the path of the total eclipse. Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Buffalo are the other urban centers that are best positioned to see the rare astronomical event.
More than half the population of the contiguous United States lives within 250 miles of the path of the total eclipse.
The eclipse will also be visible in parts of Mexico before crossing the United States and passing over areas of Atlantic Canada at the tail end. Montreal is the biggest Canadian city in the path of the total eclipse.
The Canadian city of Gander in Newfoundland and Labrador will be the last major hub to see the moon pass between Earth and the sun. The eclipse will cause a sudden drop in temperature, eliciting reactions from plants and animals. It may also trigger street lighting to come on.
Texas has not seen a total solar eclipse for 146 years, causing authorities to declare a state of emergency in some areas ahead of an expected massive influx of tourists. State officials in Bell County, Texas are bracing for a surge of onlookers along a 480-mile stretch of road directly in the path of the total solar eclipse.
Officials expect around 1 million people to travel to or within the state that day exclusively for eclipse-related purposes. The county is home to Austin, Texas.
Other cities, like Cleveland, are hosting viewing parties, while Major League Baseball has pushed back the start times for several Monday games because of the eclipse.
For those who aren’t able to travel to see the eclipse in person, NASA will live stream the event. The three-hour program will showcase the eclipse from several different locations.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will also showcase science experiments related to the eclipse during the NASA live stream.
The agency is also offering a “no-commentary, telescope-only feed” of the event on its YouTube channel, starting at 1 p.m. CDT Monday.
In another science-related move, NASA will follow the entirety of the eclipse path using jets. The move will collect data on the sun and Earth’s atmosphere.
The space administration will affix spectrometers and other instruments to its WB-57 twin-engined reconnaissance aircraft to help make observations of the sun’s corona and Earth’s atmosphere. The planes first entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1953 and are part of NASA’s high-altitude research program.
Monday’s eclipse “provides scientists a unique opportunity to study this mysterious region of the sun,” NASA said in a recent blog post.
Those unable to see the NASA live feed or see the eclipse in person will have to wait decades until the next time the phenomenon re-appears in the continental United States.
A pair of total solar eclipses in 2044 and 2045 is the next time Americans will be able to see the event over the U.S. mainland.
The 2044 total eclipse will be visible in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana, while parts of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan will also be in the path of totality.
The most recent total eclipse took place on Aug. 21, 2017. People in Oregon were the first to see the partial eclipse, which began around 9:04 a.m. PDT. The full eclipse became visible 72 minutes later and lasted for a full minute.
At the outset in Oregon, people in Portland sat in silence before bursting into applause as the darkest period began, eventually igniting fireworks and sending them spiraling into the temporarily darkened sky.
People in Carbondale, Ill., home to Southern Illinois University, were subject to the longest extended period of total darkness with 2 minutes and 38 seconds.
The university’s Saluki Stadium was packed to its 15,000-person capacity for a viewing party and related pre-eclipse festivities.
Weather did not cooperate that day, with heavy low cloud cover obstructing all but five seconds of the total solar eclipse.
Crowds also packed sold-out stadiums in St. Louis, Nashville and Charleston, S.C., to watch the event. Dozens of U.S. Army Reserve members watched it from a military cargo plane.
The full eclipse lasted for just over 1 minute and 40 seconds in South Carolina, the last state able to see it.
