Eclipse eve: Millions converge across U.S. to see sun go dark

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have converged on a narrow corridor stretching from Oregon to Idaho, piling into campsites, fields, motels and motorcades for a front-row seat at the first total solar eclipse to sweep coast to coast in 99 years.

Planetariums and museums posted “Sold out of eclipse glasses” on their front doors. Tents dotted open fields, and hand-lettered signs advertised more camping space available – for unspecified prices. In Molalla, Oregon, a small library readied its stock of Tang, the unofficial drink of NASA.

With 200 million people within a day’s drive of the path of totality nationwide, towns and parks braced for monumental crowds. In Salem, Oregon, a field outside the state fairgrounds was transformed into a campground in advance of an eclipse-watching party for 8,500.

“It’s one of those ‘check the box’ kind of things in life,” said Hilary O’Hollaren, who drove 30 miles from Portland with her two teenagers and a tent, plus a couple friends.

Yet in other spots along the path, Sunday was as becalmed as any summer afternoon in the dog days of August.

The coastal Oregon town of Lincoln City, where the totality will first touch land, showed little visible activity Sunday. Many hotel rooms, advertised at twice their usual rate, stood vacant.

Even in the quieter locales, however, the specter of the eclipse was apparent. In Molalla, the Hoffman House Antique Mall, which sits on the highway traveling through town, was holding an outdoor “Solar Eclipse Flea Market” of steampunk merchandise and antiques.

At the public library, Director Diana Hadley said that, unlike most of the country, she still had a stockpile of eclipse glasses ready to distribute.

“I think we’re the only library in the county that has any left,” she said.

The town of about 8,700 sits between Portland and Salem about 15 miles east of Interstate 5.

Tourists who arrived in Oregon for the eclipse seemed to have aimed either for bigger cities along the I-5 corridor in the path of totality, like Salem or Silverton, or traveled to central and eastern Oregon, where fewer trees means a bigger sky for viewing. No one in Molalla is sure what to expect come Monday morning, she said.

Wherever on the path – or near it – viewers position themselves, the sight is likely to be a memorable one. Astronomers consider a full solar eclipse to be among the grandest of cosmic spectacles.

The Earth, moon and sun line up perfectly every one to three years, briefly turning day into night for a sliver of the planet. But these sights normally are in no man’s land, like the vast Pacific or the poles. This will be the first eclipse of the social media era to pass through such a heavily populated area.

The moon hasn’t thrown this much shade at the U.S. since 1918. That was the country’s last coast-to-coast total eclipse.

In fact, the U.S. mainland hasn’t seen a total solar eclipse since 1979 – and even then, only five states in the Northwest experienced total darkness before the eclipse veered into Canada.

Monday’s total eclipse will cast a shadow that will race through 14 states, entering near Lincoln City, Oregon, at 10:16 a.m., moving diagonally across the heartland and then exiting near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:47 p.m. EDT. The path will cut 2,600 miles across the land and will be just 60 to 70 miles wide.

Mostly clear skies beckoned along much of the route, according to the National Weather Service .

All of North America will get at least a partial eclipse. Central America and the top of South America will also see the moon cover part of the sun.

NASA and other scientists will be watching and analyzing from telescopes on the ground and in orbit, the International Space Station, airplanes and scores of high-altitude balloons, which will beam back live video. Citizen scientists will monitor animal and plant behavior as daylight turns into twilight and the temperature drops.

NASA’s associate administrator for science missions, Thomas Zurbuchen, took to the skies for a dry run Sunday. He will usher in the eclipse over the Pacific Coast from a NASA plane.

“Can’t wait for the cosmic moment Mon morning,” he tweeted.

The next total solar eclipse in the U.S. will be in 2024. The next coast-to-coast one will not be until 2045.