Next Monday, sky watchers from the beaches of Oregon through the midsection of America and down the South Carolina coastline, will be trying to catch a glimpse of the first total solar eclipse across the U.S. in 99 years. But in the so-called path of totality—a 70-or-so-mile-wide band in which parts of the country will be in complete daytime darkness for two-plus minutes—bartenders, winemakers, and distillers are hoping for another cosmic call: “Another round, please!” 
 
 Here’s how five distillers, winemakers, and brewers are prepping for when the sun suddenly goes dark. 
 
 MADRAS, OREGON—Totality Strikes: 10:19 a.m. PDT 
 
 When it comes to claims to fame, tiny Madras, Oregon (pop: roughly 6,700), usually boasts about being America’s carrot seed capital. But on eclipse day, Madras becomes a prime viewing spot in the state where the eclipse first strikes U.S. soil. More than 100,000 people are expected to cram into the central Oregon high-desert town for the event, attracted by wide-open vistas, predictably clear summer skies, and 2 minutes, 2 seconds of total darkness, one of the longest spans in the Northwest. 
 
 Rick Molitor has something else waiting for them: American Strong’er, a 97-proof whiskey he has distilled specially for eclipse day. Two years ago, Molitor, along with four drinking buddies, opened New Basin and came out with American Strong Light, a whiskey named after Jedediah Strong Smith, an early Western settler. For the Strong’er version, he tweaked the final product, upping the proof from 80 to 97. Why 97? It’s a nod to Highway 97, which bisects Madras and will lead many an eclipse watcher into town for the moon show—and ideally to his distillery. 
 
 In the days leading up to the eclipse Madras will stage Solarfest, a county fair-like celebration featuring 20 bands, balloon rides, and NASA scientists holding court for the thousands of campers slated to hit town. Molitor is also hosting a VIP breakfast that day for about 50 guests. They’ll first get to see his 300-gallon still, and then sit back and view the eclipse without having to compete with the throngs for a spot. He’s also thinking of using the three hours it takes for the moon to pass by the sun to keep his still running. “If we do a small batch and get it just dialed,” he says, “I’ll be able to claim that it was made during the eclipse.” 
 
 CASPER, WYOMING—Totality Strikes: 11:42 a.m. MDT 
 
 Amber Pollock says her hometown of Casper, Wyoming, has long been viewed as “a beer-drinking town.” Come eclipse day, she’s seeking to change that perception—if not forever then at least for the time it takes for midday darkness to come and go. 
 
 She’s hosting an all-day watch party at her family-owned Backwards Distilling Company, and during two-hour blocks, Pollock will serve cocktails named after the evolving sky. For instance, starting at 9 a.m., there’s the Eclipse Chaser—cold-brewed coffee and fresh-squeezed orange juice, with muddled blueberries, tiki bitters, and an optional shot of Backwards’ own Sword Swallower Rum. Then, around 11 a.m., shortly after the moon first starts shading the sun, Pollock will offer up the First Contact: house-made pineapple lemonade, house-made grenadine, and 307 Eclipse Edition Vodka, a special version of the spirit that helped launch her family’s distillery two-and-a-half years ago. 
 
 Named after Wyoming’s sole area code, the 307 Vodka was developed by Pollock’s younger brother, Chad. “There were a lot of places serving Jack & Cokes [in Casper], but not many where you were going to find fresh squeezed juice,” says Pollock, a former elementary school teacher who launched Backwards with her brother and parents in 2014. “We had to open a facility to showcase our products in a way we wanted them to be showcased.” 
 
 Backwards, Casper’s only spirits distillery, has a tasting area that seats 52. Pollock hopes to double that number on eclipse day, drawing from the 35,000 visitors the city is expecting. (Total eclipse time in Casper: 2 minute, 26 seconds.) Besides offering unobstructed views from the distillery’s site, located on an elevated space away from downtown, Pollock has booked Inda Eaton, a Long Island-based singer-songwriter who grew up in Casper, to perform. Eaton goes on once the sun returns, and once Pollock’s last eclipse-day concoction—the Corona, a mix of milk can cinnamon moonshine, pineapple juice, lemon juice, vanilla, and bitters—is making the rounds. 
 
 MAKANDA, ILLINOIS—Totality Strikes: 1:20 p.m. CDT 
 
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 Back in 2014, Jim Ewers, who owns and operates Blue Sky Vineyard in Makanda, got a call from a stargazing junkie in Germany. The caller wanted to know if she could book a room at Ewers’ winery—for August 2017. Before that reservation request, Ewers had no clue about the coming eclipse, and that his vineyard was prime real estate for eclipse chasers. “I basically added 50 percent to the price I was charging at the time,” recalls Ewers, whose winery includes a few guest rooms. “She never took it, which worked out well because I’ve since gotten more [for the room].” 
 
 If the moon and sun line up according to star experts’ predictions, then Makanda is considered Ground Zero; total darkness in the southern Illinois town (pop: 544) is slated to last 2 minutes, 40.2 seconds, the longest duration of darkness in the country. Ewers plans to take full advantage of the designation. He’s expecting 3,000 to 5,000 people to make use of his 600-acre vineyard in the Shawnee Hills region of southern Illinois. (Ewers is charging $100 a night for RV campers.) He also bottled 100 cases of Solar Eclipse Wine, a specially made dry and, befitting the day, dark red wine he hopes to sell out by the time the crowds leave. The wine is a blend of two grapes grown in Ewers’ vineyard: Champbourcin, a French-American hybrid that Ewers says is low in tannin and fairly fruity, and Norton, a dark grape. “You can crush it and you get a high percentage of skin to juice,” Ewers explains. “You can extract more color out of the skin so you get a nice rich color out of it.” 
 
 Along with pushing the wine, Ewers has used the final days before the eclipse to map out where the rush of RVs will park, where to put a group of stargazing enthusiasts from Spain so they have a bit of seclusion and where to mount a specially commissioned piece of abstract artwork— aptly titled “He Flew Too Close to the Sun”—near the winery. The pace has left Ewers to admit, “I can’t wait until the 22nd. I want it all behind me.” 
 
 Perhaps, but he also knows what lies ahead. Come April 8, 2024, when the next total solar eclipse is slated for the U.S., his vineyard once again will be in the path of totality. 
 
 HOPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY—Totality Strikes: 1:24 p.m. CDT 
 
 Peg Hays has been aware of the approaching eclipse for 10 years, even before she and her husband, AJ Jones, bought land in Hopkinsville and decided to open the Casey Jones Distillery on it. She’s watched dozens of clips of past eclipses on YouTube. She jokingly calls herself the “Empress of the Eclipse.” 
 
 So, when darkness strikes on Aug. 21, she’ll be ready. Totality, she says, is “at 1:24 pm Central Daylight Time, for 2:40 seconds. At 1:20 I’m going to go to the bathroom; I have that on my calendar already. Then I’m going to get outside and be with the crowd and watch it, let everything else go to hell, and watch this eclipse.” 
 
 A couple of weeks before the big day, Hays isn’t sure if the crowd camping out on her property will be “500 or 5,000.” Doesn’t matter. She’s hosting a three-day party featuring blue-grass bands, food trucks, and a barber giving E-clips. 
 
 And, no doubt, she’ll be pouring her distillery’s Total Eclipse Moonshine, made from yellow dent corn that’s locally grown. “We are Kentucky proud,” she boasts, then jokes: “You can have a total or partial eclipse right now by opening up a bottle.” 
 
 The trademarked 100-proof spirit comes from a still that’s a duplicate of the last one built by Casey Jones, a Prohibition-era still maker and AJ’s grandfather. “This region [western Kentucky] was known during Prohibition as a great place to get great moonshine product,” says Hays, who began distilling on her property with AJ two years ago. 
 
 Hays has already sold more than 5,000 bottles of the special moonshine. During eclipse weekend, she expects to sell a few more. That’s because Hopkinsville, with 32,000 residents, is gearing up for 200,000 sightseers, scientists, and, well, party-chasers to come for eclipse weekend. Hopkinsville even rebranded itself “Eclipseville” thanks to researchers determining it’s where the Point of Greatest Eclipse will occur—or “where the width of the moon’s shadow is widest,” according to Solar.com. (Darkness in Hopkinsville will be just .1 second shorter than in Makanda.) 
 
 But come totality time don’t expect Hays to be behind the counter. “In fact,” she says, “when we hand out parking passes, we’re going to tell people that at 1 p.m. we’re locking up the distillery and letting everyone experience the eclipse, including our staff.” She pauses, then, with a laugh, says, “Last call.” 
 
 COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—Totality Strikes: 2:41 p.m. EDT 
 
 Speaking of last call… Two years ago, when Bryan O’Neal heard that his home state, South Carolina, would be the end of the line for Eclipse 2017, it got him thinking. And then, when he heard about the estimated number of out-of-state visitors the eclipse would draw to the state capital, Columbia, located 50 miles south of his brewery, it really got him thinking. He told himself, “If there’s going to be a million people, we’re going to brew a beer for this. This is a once-in-a hundred-year opportunity.” 
 
 O’Neal, who built swimming pools for 22 years before opening Benford Brewing on his cattle farm in Lancaster four years ago, quickly got to work. Wanting an “extremely dark” IPA for the day, he tweaked one of his recipes by using midnight wheat. “So it has a hint of porter at the beginning,” says O’Neal, “and then the hops explode with Mosaic, El Dorado, and Citra.” He called it Carolina Blackout and had a specially designed label prepared for it, using a variation of the state symbol—a Palmetto tree with a crescent moon—by switching in an eclipse moon. He included the date, Aug. 21, 2017. 
 
 And he trademarked Carolina Blackout. By starting early, he says, “we would beat all the other brewers to the punch and own the eclipse. And this is what pretty much happened.” Fortunately for O’Neal, the path of totality in South Carolina includes Columbia, Clemson, and Charleston, locations of many of his retailers. “It’s going to be like St. Patrick’s Day,” says O’Neal. “In the week of the eclipse they are going to want [Carolina Blackout] like they want green beer.” 
 
 On eclipse day, O’Neal will head to Columbia to watch the moon at work from a friend’s rooftop terrace, have a Blackout (or two), and revel in a once-in-a-lifetime sight. “South Carolina is home, and I am proud of my state,” says O’Neal. “The fact that we are getting this attention nationally is a good opportunity for the brewery and the state. It’s going to be a pretty special day.” ||||| Weiser, Idaho, could see its population of 5,507 swell to 70,000 for the total solar eclipse. As the big day looms, will things go smoothly? 
 
 The portable toilets began arriving in Weiser, Idaho, on Tuesday, the first of around 70 orange outhouses ordered by local agengies for the Great American Eclipse. 
 
 They will serve a crowd that could reach 70,000 by the time this tiny town on the Oregon border is plunged into total darkness on Monday. 
 
 You don’t even have to do the math. Patrick Nauman will do it for you: “It’s about a thousand per ... It’s all we could get.” 
 
 What you need to see the total solar eclipse across America Read more 
 
 Nauman, chairman of Eclipse Fest 2017 and co-owner of Weiser Classic Candy, where eclipse cookies sell for $2.50 a pop, views the once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event as “a huge opportunity. I look at this as Mother Nature’s apology for the hard winter. This is a big economic shot in the arm.” 
 
 Mayor Diana Thomas, however, is not so sunny. Some in her struggling town, she notes wryly, are asking, “Why is God mad at us? Two things like this in one year?” 
 
 First, a record cold winter and two months of record snowfall caused the roof to collapse on Weiser’s only grocery store and took out the bowling alley, among other buildings. The market reopened but the bowling alley’s a goner. 
 
 
 
 And now comes the eclipse, which has cast a pall of uncertainty over this Idaho town, population 5,507. 
 
 The last time a solar eclipse’s path of totality crossed the US from Pacific to Atlantic was 1918. And, as the Idaho department of commerce-tourism development notes on its website, “there won’t be another one in Idaho for 152 years!”. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brynlee Watkins, six, in Weiser, Idaho. She plans to sell water from a wagon during the total eclipse. Photograph: Otto Kitsinger for the Guardian 
 
 While the tourism department exhorts travelers to “make plans to be part of this amazing experience”, the transportation agency warns that hundreds of thousands of people are expected to descend on this rural state. And it cautions visitors: bring paper maps and lots of water. Make sure your gas tanks are full. Please, don’t set the tinder-dry state on fire. 
 
 Wariness was on full display Monday evening, during Weiser’s last pre-eclipse city council meeting. 
 
 
 
 It started with an invocation by pastor Kevin Bettinger: “I pray for our people that protect us. I pray for the people that make decisions. I pray for the events that we have coming up here in our area with the eclipse and all the many details.” 
 
 That got a very loud group “amen”. Then police lieutenant Troy Krahn outlined the city’s preparations. 
 
 The 12-person police department has borrowed two officers from the nearby town of Emmett. Police will work 10- to 12-hour shifts during the five days of festival and eclipse. 
 
 The school district will run shuttle buses from parking areas to the festival site at Memorial Park. Fire trucks will be placed in strategic spots to avoid getting stuck in traffic should disaster strike. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mayor Diana Thomas discusses preparation strategy. Tens of thousands are expected to descend on the town. Photograph: Otto Kitsinger for the Guardian 
 
 Because traffic is probably the major headache. 
 
 There’s a technical term for Weiser’s location: the middle of nowhere. It is reachable via three two-lane highways and more than half of the eclipse-viewers streaming into Weiser (rhymes with “geezer”) are expected to arrive on Monday. Or they’ll try to. 
 
 On 14 August, Nauman said the estimated driving time from Boise, the state capital, will be somewhere between five and eight hours, instead of the normal 90 minutes. On 15 August, mayor Thomas revised the commute time up – to somewhere between 10 and 10.5 hours. 
 
 And then there’s the question of accommodations. Right now, the best you can expect is a spot to pitch a tent on the grounds of Weiser High School, home of the Wolverines, or, maybe, in someone’s back yard. For a price, of course. 
 
 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Eclipse glasses for sale at Weiser Classic Candy. Photograph: Otto Kitsinger for the Guardian 
 
 Weiser High has already rented out more than 170 camp sites of 300 available on school grounds. A hundred bucks rents one spot for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, with space for two tents and one vehicle.In addition, the school has rented out 200 parking spots at $10-per-day per spot. 
 
 The cheerleaders will operate a food booth Monday. The girls’ soccer team and the science club will have an information booth all weekend, complete with eclipse glasses for sale. The track club will sell water and coffee. 
 
 “The big question is if 60,000 people try to get into Weiser at the same time Monday, is that possible?” principal Dave Davies wondered, adding. “I’d just be sad if someone had their heart set on viewing the eclipse and had to see it from their car on US Route 95.” 
 
 By 15 August, Jim Metzger had already turned away around 50 pilots who wanted to reserve space at the city’s airport. There are usually 14 tie-downs, said the airport manager; he’s capped it at 118 for the eclipse and expects pilots and passengers to camp beneath their airplane wings. 
 
 Weiser only has three motels for a total of 40 or 50 rooms. All were booked at least a year ago. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A stage in the Weiser, Idaho, backyard of Dolli Walsh, who is offering camping spaces for $75 a night. Photograph: Otto Kitsinger for the Guardian 
 
 Matt Penn found that out the hard way. 
 
 Penn is an astronomer with the National Solar Observatory. For Monday’s eclipse, he’s directing a coast-to-coast experiment called CitizenCATE, with telescopes recording at 68 sites along the path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina. Because Weiser is so small and the weather is so good, Penn said, he chose the town as his base. 
 
 'Most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen in my life': US readies for total eclipse Read more 
 
 Penn – who said he was “totally excited” – is so eager that he called each motel five months ago to book a room for him and his family. 
 
 No go. Instead, they’ll be bunking at the home of Weiser’s schools superintendent. 
 
 Once the heavens return to normal Monday, Penn plans to head home. 
 
 He will leave Weiser via a two-lane country highway. Along with 70,000 or so other astronomy buffs. More or less at the same time. 
 
 That’s the moment that has mayor Thomas most concerned. 
 
 “How,” she asks, “do we get people out of here when it’s over?” ||||| A universal pop song and the universe are about to align. 
 
 Guests aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Total Eclipse Cruise have an extra surprise in store for their once-in-a-lifetime viewing experience: Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh songstress of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” fame, will be on board to perform her 1983 hit just as the moon sails across the sun. (The cruise ship will be positioned in the path of totality for this critical moment. “Bonnie Tyler was a natural choice for this once-in-a-lifetime moment,” said the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, Michael Bayley.) 
 
 Tyler’s song launched her to stardom and remains a classic today, especially as a karaoke favorite. But this is the first time she’ll be performing it during this highly anticipated astronomical event. 
 
 “It’s going to be so exciting,” Tyler told TIME, speaking from a brief stopover in Wales. “It doesn’t happen very often, does it?” 
 
 Bonnie Tyler 
 
 Tyler is a special guest on the Oasis of the Seas for a few days of the week-long cruise, which departs from Orlando, Fla. for the Caribbean on Aug. 20. Her performance will be backed by the pop-rock band DNCE, helmed by Joe Jonas and best known for their 2015 hit “Cake By the Ocean.” Tyler, meanwhile, has carried on a multi-decade career that has taken her around the world; she’s recently been on tour in New Zealand, eastern Europe and South America. 
 
 Don’t worry about her getting seasick while on board the Oasis of the Seas or being thrown off by the eclipse. “I have a ship of my own,” she told TIME. “I go with the flow, darling. I’m not worried about things like that.” 
 
 To prepare, Tyler and DNCE will rehearse for the day prior. Tyler also always works with her voice coach on vocal exercises to prep for a show. “So if anybody hears strange noises coming from my cabin while aboard ship, they’ll know what it is,” she warned. 
 
 MORE: See How the Solar Eclipse Will Look From Anywhere in the U.S. 
 
 “The eclipse of the sun lasts 2 minutes and 40 seconds, I’m told,” Tyler elaborated. “Unlike my song. It had to be chopped about, because it was so long. I never thought it would be played on the radio, in the beginning.” 
 
 In fact, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” almost never happened at all. After finding success in the U.S. with 1978 ballad “It’s a Heartache,” Tyler sought to change tacks and work with the songwriter behind Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman. 
 
 “The A&R guy said, ‘Are you crazy? He’s never going to work with you.’ And I said, ‘Well, ask him!’ You don’t get until you ask,” Tyler recalled. “So they asked him, and… I went over to meet him, and within three weeks he’d finished writing the song for me, ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ that he’d started writing many years ago. And he finished it off and gave it to me to sing. I wouldn’t have had this hit record without bloody asking. And I got it.” 
 
 Upon first hearing the track, Tyler had a strong emotional response. “It made me cry, because I loved it so much,” she remembers. She was right to believe in the song: the original hit was one of the decade’s best-selling records with six million copies sold, and was nominated for multiple Grammys in 1984. That year, Tyler lost out to Michael Jackson and Irene Cara, for “Flashdance—What a Feeling.” “Now, I don’t mind losing out to Michael Jackson, I’ll tell you that much,” she said with a laugh. 
 
 But over the years, it’s remained popular as an enduring karaoke favorite. “God knows why, because it’s not an easy song to sing. But it’s a beautiful song,” Tyler added. “It’s a massive song, an evergreen song that you hear on the radio all the time, whether it’s an eclipse or not. And you know, you can bet your life on all these talent shows — X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent — [it] pops up so often with the contestants.” 
 
 It also spikes in popularity right around eclipses. Spotify tracked a 75 percent increase in streams the day after last year’s March total solar eclipse, and YouTube views for the music video are already growing in anticipation of August’s event, putting her at more than 300 million and counting. The music video, filmed over the course of two days in the Holloway Sanatorium outside London, is also a cult classic for its otherworldly themes and non-sequitur scenes. “It was snowing on the ground, and I had to run barefoot,” Tyler remembered of making the clip. 
 
 The Total Eclipse Cruise experience will be more straightforward for viewers — although certainly unique in its own way. 
 
 While the cruise will continue on to visit islands in the Caribbean, Tyler will be ducking out to continue touring. Her most recent album, a Nashville-recorded collection is called Rocks and Honey. 
 
 Write to Raisa Bruner at raisa.bruner@time.com. ||||| Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Lou Tomososki burned his retina while looking at a partial eclipse at 1962 and now hopes to warn others of the dangers. USA TODAY 
 
 An Oregon City man is warning people to be extra careful on the day of the eclipse. (Photo: Courtesy of Mike Benner) 
 
 OREGON CITY, Ore. -- An Oregon man who burned his retina while looking at a partial eclipse, is warning people about the dangers of viewing the solar eclipse without proper eye protection. 
 
 Lou Tomososki and a friend viewed a partial eclipse outside of Marshall High School in 1962. 
 
 “The sun at that time, at 3:30 p.m., was in the one o’clock position,” said Tomososki. “I said to Roger, ‘If you stare at it long enough the brightness goes away.’” 
 
 What seemed like a silly dare at the time turned into one of the biggest mistakes of their lives. By nightfall, both Tomososki and his buddy were having vision problems. 
 
 “It doesn’t get any worse and it doesn’t get any better,” said Tomososki. 
 
 Both Tomososki and his friend, now 70 years old, have vision problems to this day. 
 
 “You know how the news people blur a license plate out,” said Tomososki. “That’s what I have on the right eye, about the size of a pea, I can’t see around that.” 
 
 More coverage: 
 
 A doctor later told Tomososki his retina was burned during the partial eclipse. Dr. Brandon Lujan of the Casey Eye Institute said people should not look at the sun without eye protection during the total eclipse. 
 
 “I think anytime is too much,” Lujan told KGW-TV. “Anytime looking can do damage.” 
 
 Tomososki is living proof of that. He is excited about the eclipse on Aug. 21, but he will not be looking towards the sky. 
 
 “I’m going to go out and enjoy it,” he said. “But I’ll stand and watch it get dark.” 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2w6owYH ||||| A Babylonian clay tablet gives the oldest intact record of a solar eclipse, on March 5, 1223 BCE. “The sun went down, its gatekeeper was Mars,” the tablet says. 
 
 On Oct. 22 in 2134 BCE, a total solar eclipse occurred over China, with the Emperor Chung K’ang’s records noting that “the Sun and Moon did not meet harmoniously.” 
 
 Two court astronomers, named Hsi and Ho, were quickly beheaded for not predicting the event. In the 4,000 years since, astronomers have gotten much better at predicting eclipses. “It has been centuries of gradual improvement that just piled up over time,” former NASA astronomer Fred Espenak told BuzzFeed News. Only in the 1700s did reliable ground maps of eclipses appear, and their calculation was quite laborious until the 1970s. “The floodgates really opened when digital computers came online,” he said. Ancient Chinese astronomers feared a celestial dragon had eaten the sun during an eclipse. The Babylonians worried that the moon god had been surrounded by seven demons. And those were the top guys when it came to recording eclipses. The oldest intact record of a solar eclipse comes from a clay tablet from the Babylonian city of Ugarit that records a total solar eclipse on March 5, 1223 BCE. “The sun went down, its gatekeeper was Mars,” alarmed astronomers noted on the tablet. “Two livers were examined: danger.” Back then, diviners would look to the innards of animals sacrificed to the gods as signs from heaven, so this message was a sign of bad news to come for the king. 
 
 The earliest Babylonian records of lunar eclipse predictions come from 745 BCE, classical scholar John Steele of Brown University told BuzzFeed News. It was about the same time the neo-Assyrian empire (today’s northern Iraq) began to take over the Middle East, aided by very large, well-organized armies equipped with a hot new invention: iron weapons. The neo-Assyrians believed the sky was a solid dome on which the stars traveled, which was in turn covered by a celestial ocean. By 600 BCE, predicting lunar eclipses was a regular occurrence, Steele said. Warning letters regularly went from astronomers to Assyrian and Babylonian rulers about possible upcoming eclipses. A survey of 61 solar eclipse predictions from 357 BCE to the year 6 found they were 100% accurate in predicting, to within eight hours, the time of an eclipse happening somewhere on Earth. But only 28 of them were visible from Babylon. How did they do it? Basically, by keeping records of past eclipses over the centuries, the astronomers detected an eclipse cycle and formalized its rules. The key to the astronomers’ partial success was the so-called Saros cycle — a period of 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours — which saw lunar and solar eclipses repeat on five- and six-month intervals. By the Middle Ages, astronomers had compiled long tables of lunar, solar, and planetary crossings — called “ephemerides” — which were used to predict eclipses. Most of them relied on methods owed to the Greek astronomer Ptolemy, dating to around the year 150. 
 
 For eclipses, the tables grew slowly less useful because, unknown to astronomers, the length of the day slowly increases over the centuries, throwing off predictions. This increase is caused by the gravitational pull of the moon, which robs rotational energy from the Earth as it creates the tides, adding about 40 seconds per century to the length of the day. The exact, changing distance from the Earth to the moon wasn’t measured until astronauts left mirror reflectors on the moon during the Apollo landings. 
 
 Isaac Newton’s 1687 theory of gravity — and the calculation of eclipses made from it in the next few decades by famous comet discoverer Edmond Halley — started the modern age of eclipse path predictions. Halley published the first public “broadsheet” depiction of an eclipse’s path, tracking a solar eclipse across England in 1715. He was about 20 miles off on its path but, according to the historian Alice Waters of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, he saved “the Publick” and King George I from fears that the eclipse was a bad omen, a real fear after a year of civil unrest in England. The most eagerly awaited eclipse prediction of the next few centuries came in 1919, around the total solar eclipse falling on the island of Príncipe. There, the English astronomer Arthur Eddington waited to measure just how much the sun’s gravity bent the light from distant stars passing close to the sun, normally impossible to see in the glare of sunlight, during six minutes of total eclipse. Albert Einstein’s new theory of gravity predicted that light from the constellation Taurus would bend nearly twice as much as Newton’s theory said it would as it passed by the sun. To some controversy, Eddington found the light bent just that much, a confirmation that set Einstein on his path to worldwide acclaim. Astronomers have since repeated the experiment, confirming the theory of gravity every time — and they’ll be doing it again this August, in Wyoming and Oregon. With computers doing the calculations since the 1970s, a lot of the number-crunching work of predicting eclipse paths has gone away, said Espenak, who for decades ran NASA’s eclipse website. Even now, though, long-term predictions of exactly where eclipses will fall are a bit dicey because of the moon’s recession from Earth, he said. The moon is tipped 5 degrees from Earth’s equator and it feels a tug from both the Earth and sun, as well as a tiny pull from Jupiter. “They pull it up and down — that causes all kinds of problems,” Espenak said, affecting the placement of the eclipse map. “The moon is devilishly difficult to predict.” Climate change, which is raising sea levels and melting ice packs, might in turn affect tides, and also throw lunar eclipse predictions out of whack. “We can’t be certain how that will go in the coming centuries,” he added. “But we are certainly a lot better at predicting than they were all those centuries ago.” 
 
 See all of BuzzFeed's eclipse stories here, and buy your BuzzFeed eclipse viewing glasses here! 
 
 Dan Vergano is a science reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC. Contact Dan Vergano at dan.vergano@buzzfeed.com. Got a confidential tip? Submit it here. ||||| So we asked eclipse fanatics to tell us what makes them so damn special. 
 
 As you might've heard, the total solar eclipse that will occur on Aug. 21 is kind of a big deal. For the first time in 99 years, the moon's shadow will make its way across the entire United States from the west coast to the east. This means that for the first time in a few generations, anyone in the contiguous 48 states will be within a day's drive of the path of totality, when the moon will completely block the sun and day will briefly turn to night. Experiencing an eclipse from within the path of totality is considered so singular and marvelous that amateur eclipse chasers and professional astronomers alike started booking travel, scheduling transportation, and reserving lodging years in advance. BuzzFeed News talked to eclipse chasers and challenged them to describe as best they could the life-changing magic of witnessing a total solar eclipse. Here's what they shared. 
 
 “I feel as if I am in the presence of a deity, and I understand that in this vast universe, I am nothing.” "Experiencing a total solar eclipse is the closest most of us will ever get to space travel. During totality, the earth's blue sky draws back like a receding curtain, revealing what's above our heads but unseen at any other time: the inner reaches of our solar system. You see a most un-sunlike sun — a frilly, shimmering halo — flanked by planets and bright stars. 
 
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 It's as if you are standing on some distant world, looking back at creation. 
 
 I should note that in my normal life I am a staid, logical, scientifically minded person. A total solar eclipse taps a whole other part of my being. I feel as if I am in the presence of a deity, and I understand that in this vast universe, I am nothing. It's a terrifying and humbling realization, and yet —paradoxically — it brings me great peace." —David Baron 
 
 author of American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World 
 
 Boulder, Colorado 
 
 “The sky is a lovely shade of twilight blue, and a handful of bright stars and planets will shine forth, and all around the horizon you’ll see pastel sunset colors …” "Inside the path of totality, you will see the most spectacularly beautiful sight you have ever seen in nature: the everyday sun totally blocked by the moon, revealing the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. The silhouette of the moon appears blacker than any black you’ve ever seen. The solar corona is a diaphanous glow all around the sun, pearly white, with loops and streamers extending several solar diameters in various directions, tracing the sun’s otherwise invisible magnetic field. 
 
 At the very beginning/end of totality, you’ll see brilliant red arcs of the sun’s chromosphere, or lower atmosphere, just beyond the moon’s advancing/retreating limb, or edge, and you may see some prominences — jets, arcs, or loops of red chromospheric gas — jutting off the edge of the sun. The sky is a lovely shade of twilight blue, and a handful of bright stars and planets will shine forth, and all around the horizon you’ll see pastel sunset colors coming from beyond the moon’s shadow in all directions, where the sun is still shining. You’ll feel the temperature drop noticeably, and you may feel changes in the wind — both its speed and its direction. All of this lasts just a couple minutes, though it feels as if it’s over within seconds." 
 
 —Rick Fienberg 
 
 press officer, American Astronomical Society 
 
 Washington, DC 
 
 
 
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 “The only thing I can compare that to is if you’re snorkeling ... things underwater look all different colors than they do up on land.” 
 
 “When you experience a total eclipse, it kind of looks like the end of the world. It really does. If it’s a clear day, the sun is high in the sky. It’s supposed to be there — there’s not supposed to be a black hole in the sky right where the sun should be. And that black hole has pink flames and silver streamers around it. Then it gets dark — it’s doesn’t get totally dark — it’s more like a deep dusk. And because the light that’s provided is coming from the sun’s silvery corona, what you see all has a different color than normal. 
 
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 The only thing I can compare that to is if you’re snorkeling ... things underwater look all different colors than they do up on land. But you know you’re not snorkeling — you know you’re not under the water. And so it’s the only time in my life where all the colors that I’m used to living with every day start to go weird. Your brain goes, Whoa, what’s going on? I’m not on a drug. I’m not in a movie. Yet everything is changing. And that happens just before the total eclipse, maybe a couple minutes before. And whenever that happens, the hair on the back of my neck starts to stand up, because it’s just so weird ... and I’ve now chased about 10 or 12 of them since 1970.” 
 
 —Doug Duncan 
 
 astronomer, Department of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences of the University of Colorado 
 
 director of the Fiske Planetarium 
 
 Boulder, Colorado 
 
 "It became eerily dark on the hills and over the bay, where intermittent camera flashes signaled the presence of unseen boats." “I went to southern England for the total solar eclipse in 1999. But of course, England isn't known for clear skies, and my choice to watch from there came with some degree of risk. When the day came, I gathered with a small group of locals on a hill overlooking the ocean, and we stood under a clouded sky to wait. As the eclipse progressed, once in a while, the crescent sun peeked through a break in the clouds, and we watched the strange narrowing shape with our eclipse glasses. By the time totality arrived, the cloud cover was complete, but the occasion was deeply surreal and affecting nonetheless. It became eerily dark on the hills and over the bay, where intermittent camera flashes signaled the presence of unseen boats. The air grew colder. Streetlights came over the road. Sea birds shrieked and flew about, confused. 
 
 And in every direction, all along the horizon, we saw a pale glow like a 360-degree sunset, where the land in the distance was still in the bright light of midday. 
 
 It would have been nice to see the solar corona around the darkened sun. But even without that, the experience of being in a momentary island of full night surrounded by daylight was an extraordinary one, and it made visceral the connection we have to the usually predictable motions of the cosmos. Go for clear skies if you can find them, but even under a blanket of clouds, standing on the Earth in the midst of a total solar eclipse is a phenomenal thing.” 
 
 
 
 —Katie Mack 
 
 theoretical astrophysicist 
 
 Melbourne, Australia 
 
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 “The moon has reached the sun, moving in front of it in a slow waltz.” “Eclipse day arrives. Four years of preparation had gone by, months of building the equipment, weeks of testing, days of assembling and retesting and an early morning of finalizing details. Despite how tired everyone is, we are all filled with anxiety and excitement. 
 
 All of us stand in the cold, waiting for the moment of truth. Someone in the distance shouts, ‘First contact, first contact!’ The moon has reached the sun, moving in front of it in a slow waltz. Spectators watch, take pictures, and do jumping jacks in an effort to keep warm while totality is reached, knowing that the temperature will drop a few more degrees. Finally, totality is reached. The moon stands between us and our sun not knowing, or perhaps knowing, what phenomenon she has created. Darkness comes. The sun’s atmosphere reveals itself, shining over us. … No words can describe the feeling one gets when witnessing such an event. The entire world around us has disappeared. It is just us and the eclipse. 
 
 How lucky we are! Slowly, as the moon starts to eclipse our star, I start to realize how small we truly are and how small we truly feel. I realize how wonderful life is and how fortunate we all are to be in this very spot as scientists — but beyond that, as people who have come together to make this an unforgettable week. The moon continues to waltz her way across the sky. The sun slowly appears behind the moon. Light ensues once again, final pictures and videos are taken, a few more cheers can be heard and lots of smiles can be seen. ... The moon has left the stage and the sun proudly shines knowing we are all talking about him." 
 
 —Nathalia Alzate 
 
 postdoctoral research associate in Space Weather, Aberystwyth University, Wales 
 
 UK visiting scientist, Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawai'i, Manoa Honolulu 
 
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 “Chasing a total solar eclipse is the act of looking for unusual events to break up your usual routine.” “For me a total solar eclipse is not just the passage of the moon in front of the sun’s face. It’s a pretext for seeing the world in a different way. Day is not always shiny; it can be as dark as night even at midday. Chasing a total solar eclipse is the act of looking for unusual events to break up your usual routine, and discover new things. 
 
 A total solar eclipse can be very inspiring and teachable, and it can be the beginning of a new life, as it was for me. Witnessing a total solar eclipse mesmerized me, and got me addicted to the world of astronomy, the world of spectacular and exciting science-based phenomena. A total solar eclipse consists of the most interesting and exciting activities — traveling, adventure, photography, education, observation, etc. It’s fantastic to find yourself among the lovely family of eclipse chasers, including a great number of members all around the world.” —Mohamad Soltanolkotabi 
 
 amateur astronomer and astrophotographer 
 
 Girona, Spain 
 
 “It looks like it’s electrified. It’s purely an electrical, magical effect.” 
 
 “There was Aruba in 1998. That was my second total solar eclipse and I was jumping for joy. ... You’ve got this beautiful coastal beach and this turquoise water. You looked up and you had this redness around the horizon ... and then you had this violet sky and there’s a silvery sheen, the rays of the corona extending in two directions — they’re streaming out. ... That’s the real sun that you don’t [usually] see. Now it’s exposed itself to you — it’s showing you what it’s got. The moon took over. The moon did it for you. 
 
 It really blew me away. The colors, the electricity of it all. It looks like it’s electrified. It’s purely an electrical, magical effect. 
 
 Then everything goes back to normal within seconds, and then it’s like, Where’s the next one? You want to do that again immediately ... you want to just take it in again. Well, guess what, you have to wait — not days or months, but years. ... Time stops, too, when you’re there.” 
 
 —Mike Kentrianakis 
 
 solar eclipse project manager at the American Astronomical Society 
 
 New York City 
 
 “I am not a very emotional person, but when I listen to recordings I have made at previous eclipses, I often get tears in my eyes.” “Total solar eclipses are truly awe-inspiring. Other natural phenomena can be spectacular, such as the aurora borealis, Yosemite Valley, or a beautiful sunset, but none of those shake you to your core in such a fundamental way. The sun is so central to life on Earth that when it slowly disappears and then is suddenly replaced by a jet-black circle surrounded by the white wispy corona, your lizard brain can scarcely comprehend it. And no other phenomenon elicits such universal reactions of joy and excitement among all those who experience it. No photo or video can convey the experience of a total eclipse, but audio recordings come closest. I am not a very emotional person, but when I listen to recordings I have made at previous eclipses, I often get tears in my eyes.” 
 
 —Evan Zucker 
 
 eclipse chaser 
 
 San Diego 
 
 “You might gasp, scream, or perhaps cry at this astonishing vision.” 
 
 “A total eclipse of the sun is unlike any other experience you can witness in nature. The moment when the moon's shadow envelopes you will be a full sensory experience; the sky suddenly darkens, planets and brighter stars reveal themselves, and the sun's corona, invisible to us all our lives except for the few precious minutes of total eclipse, will stun you with its beauty. You might gasp, scream, or perhaps cry at this astonishing vision. 
 
 
 
 When totality draws to a close, you will be a changed person. You will feel a new connection to our universe and your spirit will be lifted above the Earth. Your emotion at this moment will be bittersweet; [you'll feel both] giddy from the experience of totality, and sadness it has drawn to an end. Your first thought after totality will be When and where is the next one? And you will resolve to see the next great American eclipse passing from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024.” 
 
 
 
 —Michael Zeiler 
 
 co-owner and operator of Great American Eclipse 
 
 Santa Fe, New Mexico 
 
 “It looked like a black hole in the sky.” 
 
 “We were on the beach on the northwest corner of the big island of Hawaii, in a state park. The wind died down and so did the waves that were coming in — there were no waves at all by the time of totality. The birds had gone to roost for the 'night' and all the tropical frogs were chirping in abundance. The clouds were breaking up over the mountain, and there it was! The partial eclipse was well on its way. A short time later, it happened — the black moon took over and blocked out the sun — it looked like a black hole in the sky! At the same time, the corona burst out all around it and I was just totally overwhelmed with the magnificent beauty of it! It was an explosion of colors in my heart and mind, and I was covered by waves of goosebumps from head to toe. Even now, 26 years later, I have tears running down my face reliving it again. Each new total eclipse that I see, I just relax and let the same thing happen to me again. I can hardly wait until Aug. 21." 
 
 —Jackie Beucher 
 
 vice president of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City 
 
 Overland Park, Kansas 
 
 “When totality is over, and the normal world returns, I feel an incredible loss and a yearning to stand in that familiar shadow again.” 
 
 “For me, a total solar eclipse is an intense emotional moment — it's like I feel every human emotion in a short period of time. There is a rush of intense emotion, a sense of wrongness when it starts to go dim, a primitive fear that gives me shudders and goosebumps at the creeping darkness of the moon's shadow, and intense euphoria as the sun is fully covered and the world goes dark. 
 
 Then comes the stupendous awe of what I am seeing — there is a hole in the sky where the sun should be. It is wonderful, thrilling, exciting, and incredible. This is followed by moments of deep reflection; I am struck by how vast our universe is, and how incredibly small and insignificant I am within it. It reminds me that we are all connected, and makes me feel humbled by how lucky I am to experience such incredible beauty. Time stops and is, indeed, no longer relevant. I love looking around at the world, seeing sunset colors all around, and feeling as if I am in a different reality. When totality is over, and the normal world returns, I feel an incredible loss and a yearning to stand in that familiar shadow again.” —Kate Russo 
 
 psychologist and author, Being in the Shadow 
 
 Belfast 
 
 See all of BuzzFeed's eclipse stories here, and buy your BuzzFeed eclipse viewing glasses here! 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Sally Tamarkin is a health editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Contact Sally Tamarkin at sally.tamarkin@buzzfeed.com. Got a confidential tip? Submit it here. ||||| Right about now, maybe you’re looking at your bank account and reports of unprecedented traffic and wondering why you thought it was a good idea to experience the eclipse in the particular spot you chose. 
 
 You felt original, planning to watch near a mountain of cars (Carhenge, near Alliance, Neb.) or along the moon’s limb (Glendo, Wyo.). But then you saw that thousands of other people had the same idea. 
 
 Some are warning of a “zombie apocalypse,” as hordes of befuddled sky-gazers strain the resources of towns more accustomed to hosting pancake breakfasts than managing Coachella-size gatherings. 
 
 Don’t worry. Here are four reasons human behavior researchers say that you made the right decision to experience the eclipse in a crowd — even if the portable toilets overflow. ||||| Make Your Own Eclipse Viewer 
 
 NPR's Skunk Bear YouTube 
 
 Hundreds of years before solar viewing glasses were readily available, scientists and casual spectators could still enjoy these rare celestial events without frying their eyeballs. They'd use a combination of pinholes and mirrors to redirect the sun's rays onto a screen. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Bettmann Archive/Getty Images 
 
 It took a while to figure out how to build the so-called camera obscura. Ancient Chinese and Greek scholars puzzled over pinholes for centuries before an Arab mathematician and scientist came up with a design. 
 
 You can rig up your own version with simple household items. It's easy. Skunk Bear's latest video shows you how. 
 
 And remember, never look directly at the sun without appropriate eye protection. 
 
 ____ 
 
 Eclipses are beautiful, and they're also really important to scientists. Skunk Bear's latest video explores the many discoveries sparked by solar eclipses. Check it out over on Skunk Bear's YouTube channel. ||||| What has been dubbed the U.S. eclipse of the century could draw as many as 7 million people to the areas in which the sun will be 100% blocked out. The region runs from Oregon diagonally across the country to South Carolina. 
 
 GreatAmericanEclipse.com reports that 12.25 million people already live in the area where the sun will be completely blotted out by the moon. This area is about 65 miles wide. Based on the location of the path, a huge number of Americans could travel to the area to watch the event on August 21. The organization’s experts report: 
 
 The path of totality cuts a diagonal path across the nation from Oregon to South Carolina and most Americans live within a day’s drive to the path of totality. The United States has an excellent highway system and most American families have it within their means to take a short driving vacation. August is an ideal month for a vacation; the weather is warm and the chance of summer storms has diminished in much of the nation. Most schools have not yet begun their fall session by August 21st and some schools near the path of totality are scheduling a late start. Social media will have a huge impact on motivating eclipse visitors. The eclipse is exactly the type of event guaranteed to go viral on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms. We expect that many people will only make plans to go in the week before eclipse day. 
 
 Take a vacation, see the eclipse. 
 
 The organization did some very rough math about how many people would actually travel to witness the event, and the range of their estimate is very broad: 
 
 A person who is 200 miles away from the centerline of eclipse will have certainly heard about the eclipse within the week before from TV or social media. This average person will receive the impression that the total solar eclipse is something very special to see. Not every one has the freedom to travel. Monday is a work day and for some, a school day. Some may also be deterred by myths about viewing the eclipse or scary stories of traffic congestion. Despite the many news stories about the spectacle of the eclipse, some people will be completely disinterested in the eclipse. Based on this profile of an average person living 200 miles away, I estimate that this population has a high probability of 2% to drive into the path of totality and a low probability of 0.5%. I halve these estimates for people living 400 miles away. I further halve these estimates for people living 800 miles away. I apply this formula to every populated area in the United States using ArcGIS software by Esri. 
 
 The sum estimate from this analysis is that between 1.85 and 7.4 million people will visit the path of totality on eclipse day. 
 
 The “school day” part is s real hindrance to people who want to see a once-in-a-lifetime event.
– On Monday, the US will have a view of a total solar eclipse for the first time in 99 years. We know that thanks to the hard, sometimes-life-risking work of astronomers over thousands of years. In a history of eclipse predictions, BuzzFeed reports two Chinese astronomers were beheaded by the emperor after failing to predict a total solar eclipse in 2134 BCE. Their failure could perhaps be forgiven—it would be nearly 4,000 years before astronomers were able to start making reliable ground maps of eclipses. Here's what else you need to know about the upcoming celestial show: 24/7 Wall St. is warning of massive traffic jams as up to 7 million people travel to the 70-mile-wide strip stretching from Oregon to South Carolina where the total eclipse will be visible. And that can mean headaches for some small towns in that strip, the Guardian reports. "Why is God mad at us?" asks the mayor of Weiser, a tiny Idaho town of 5,500 that is expecting up to 70,000 for the eclipse but was only able to procure 70 port-a-potties for their use. But human behavior researchers tell the New York Times a total solar eclipse is worth braving the crowds to view alongside other people. It makes the experience more emotional and provides a way to connect with others, even for a few minutes. One thing that can make massive crowds more tolerable: alcohol. The Daily Beast provides a "drinker's guide" to the eclipse, including a distiller in Oregon selling 97-proof eclipse whiskey and a winery in Illinois that bottled 100 cases of eclipse wine for the 5,000 people it's expecting. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed talks to a bunch of eclipse fanatics to find out what makes total solar eclipses so special. “I feel as if I am in the presence of a deity, and I understand that in this vast universe, I am nothing," one such fanatic explains. Need a soundtrack for your eclipse viewing? Time reports Bonnie Tyler will sing her 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" during Royal Caribbean's Total Eclipse Cruise, which will be positioned in the eclipse's path off the East Coast. At least one person in America isn't planning on viewing Monday's eclipse. According to USA Today, Lou Tomososki of Oregon still has permanent eye damage—a permanent blurry spot in his vision—from staring at a partial eclipse in 1962 without eye protection. Don't be like Lou Tomososki. NPR has a video showing how to make your own eclipse viewer so you can watch the action without burning out your retinas.