Total solar eclipses rarely occur in the same location twice, on average once every 366 years. In 2019, this happened in the Pacific Ocean far west of the Chilean coast. Fortunately, the next project will cover an area of approximately 10,000 square miles, including parts of southern Illinois, southeastern Missouri, and western Kentucky.
People in these areas will experience the eclipse on April 8, about seven years after they were near the center of the path of the Great American Solar Eclipse.
During the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, Southern Illinois University sold out its football stadium in Carbondale.
“People were screaming,” said Bob Baer, director of the university's astronomical observation program. “But unlike a football game, everyone was yelling the same thing.”
This college town of about 22,000 people was one of the Midwest's most popular hotspots for the 2017 solar eclipse. Now, Carbondale and surrounding areas are bracing for another day without sunshine. In 2017, towns in the region experienced an average of about two and a half minutes of total darkness, but this time they will experience about four minutes of total darkness. Preparation and promotion were also stepped up.
Baer first heard that Carbondale, five hours south of Chicago, was at the intersection of two solar eclipses nearly a decade before the 2017 event. But its significance didn't hit home for him until 2014, when an astronomer from the National Solar Observatory contacted him.
“Once I got it, I almost fell off my chair,” said Baer, who had a hard time convincing others. “When I started telling people about the eclipse, their eyes would get glazed over. They'd lose in the first 20 seconds.”
As August 2017 approached, things started to change. In Carbondale, he planned the eclipse for three years and about 14,000 people attended. Although clouds blocked much of the view that day, the communal experience still touched people's hearts. The excitement of that moment still resonates seven years later.
“The atmosphere here is still pretty electric,” Baer said. “I have high expectations.”
Not everyone was as ready as Carbondale was in 2017. Seventy miles away, city officials in Paducah, Kentucky, were surprised by the number of people who visited.
“We had no idea what was going to happen,” said Angela Shade, a downtown development specialist with the Paducah City Planning Department. She remembers locals renting out their yards to campers to make room for everyone coming for the eclipse. As Schade watched the scene from her workplace's parking lot, she didn't fully understand what she was experiencing.
This year, Paducah will host a street fair where educators will teach people about the science of solar eclipses. Paducah's acclaimed National Quilt Museum will host an exhibition featuring the work of Karen Nyberg, a former NASA astronaut who creates space-themed quilts.
Schade also makes sure Paducah's street lights don't turn on automatically when the sun goes out.
Paducah wasn't the only town in crisis in 2017. In Makanda, Illinois, a village of fewer than 600 people, 12,000 people flocked to see the eclipse.
“We gave it our all,” said festival event coordinator Debbie Dunn. Located in the middle of the eclipse's path, the town experienced the longest period of totality. One artist painted neon orange lines across the city and through his own studio to mark the center line of the moon's shadow.
Makanda will not have its longest totality again in April, and it will be near Torreon, Mexico. But Dunn said interest in the eclipse seems to be higher than in 2017.
“All of our neighboring communities are planning all these things,” she said, adding that Carbondale was the only place in southern Illinois to do something big last time.
The event is not limited to the day of the solar eclipse. The community is planning festivals the weekend before the total solar eclipse and the night after. There are also strategic reasons for this. Makanda City, for example, is hosting a dance on the night of April 8 in hopes of easing traffic congestion following the solar eclipse that paralyzed the town in 2017.
Pat Hunt, who runs Apple Creek Vineyard & Winery with her family in Friedheim, Missouri, organizes weekends of live music and food.
Hunt said her experience at the vineyard in 2017 was chaotic. The main reason was that no one knew how many people would gather. “The first time, I just had a nightmare,” she said. “We weren’t as prepared as we needed to be.”
This time, they've added 10 employees to manage visitor arrivals, sell tickets and help on eclipse days, many focused on transportation and parking.
The college town seemed better prepared in 2017. “We weren't caught by surprise,” said Bruce Skinner, chairman of the solar eclipse committee at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. In 2017, this event coincided with the first day of classes, so the university incorporated it into orientation activities.
Classes will be canceled on April 8th due to a school-wide block party. Many students will go on to support his NASA-funded research projects.
The next total solar eclipse near this region will not occur until 2045, but we will be lucky enough to see it twice every seven years.
“For a lot of people who are going to see it, it's a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Dr. Skinner said. But for those at a crossroads, “it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”