KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The solar eclipse is less than a week away. The solar eclipse happens Monday, April 8, in the afternoon. In East Tennessee, you won't be able to see a total eclipse. Instead, you will see a partial eclipse.
"90% partial is what we will have here," said Paul Lewis, the University of Tennessee Science Outreach Director. "That means that the entire disk of the Sun is not covered by the shadow of the moon or the disk of the moon. And we're gonna see it encroach on the Sun."
If you want to see a total eclipse, you have to head west or north. The closest locations to us in the path of totality, are Dayton, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky. Both are a little more than a four-hour and 30-minute drive from Knoxville. According to NASA, Dayton will have 2 minutes and 51 seconds of totality, while Paducah will have 1 minute and 48 seconds.
Dave and Marti Jordan, a Clinton couple, say they plan to fly to the path of totality.
"We will be in Burlington, Vermont, which I think like 30 minutes from it is the point where it will be the longest amount of totality,' said Marti. "So depending on the weather, you know, if it's cloudy, we're we know, we may have to drive a little bit to get somewhere where there's, you know, a few more seconds."
The Jordans say they went to an eclipse party in Farragut in 2017, and that's what made them plan to see another this year.
"We had a whole Eclipse party," said Marti. "We did Oreos, where you slide them off the middle, and they make the Eclipse. We had all kinds of themed food napkins. And we just had a party in their front yard for the day. And when it started going dark, everything changed, like the crickets started making noise. And you could hear the birds singing and you could feel the temperature. It dropped 10 degrees. And it was just amazing to watch."
Marti says she took pictures during the 2017 eclipse, and she plans on doing it for this year's too.
"So I set up my big ole camera and just kept shooting through the whole thing," said Marti. "And then the diamond ring happened, which everybody was I mean, you can hear the whole neighborhood. Remember that? Yeah, you can hear the whole thing. Oh, man, this is so wild. This is amazing."
Marti says they immediately started planning a trip, but hotels couldn't be booked that far in advance. Now, she says the plan is to make a whole trip out of this.
"We thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said Marti. "And then we find out that it's happening again in 2024. So the friends that we were in their front yard with we've been planning this trip with them."
Dave says everyone should try to take a look at the eclipse with the appropriate precautions, no matter where they are.
"It doesn't happen that often even to get a partial one," said Dave. "So you just have to, you know, it's amazing to see the sun turn into a crescent or even the half, half sun like a half moon."
And Paul Lewis agrees.
"The experience certainly is absolutely important," said Lewis."We encourage parents to get their kids out and do this with them. This is a family thing. You don't have to go anywhere here to observe this. If you want to come here (Nielsen Physics building), you're welcome to."
In Knoxville, the solar eclipse begins right at 1:49 p.m. Then at 3:07, the sun will be the most hidden. The eclipse ends at 4:23. You can check for times in your area on NASA's Eclipse Explorer tool.
Lewis says the most important thing is to be safe. Lewis says you should make sure your eclipse glasses meet the transmission requirements for direct observation of the sun. You should also make sure there are no holes or scratches on the lenses. He says at no point during the partial eclipse, should you take your glasses off.
Lewis says you should also not use your eclipse glasses with any other tool, like binoculars. He says this could lead to irreversible eye damage in just seconds.
"They're not safe to use with an optical instrument, that will do that to your retina," said Lewis. "It's permanent, which means you cannot get it fixed. And you'll have a blind spot for the rest of your life. So you need to be careful and watch kids make sure they don't use and don't ever put them in front of the binoculars. And it's just not the right kind of a device to be used with anything else. They're simply for putting on and looking directly at the sun that's all."
Lewis says the UT Department of Physics and Astronomy has free glasses available.
You can also purchase eclipse glasses at Home Depot, Lowe's, and Walmart. American Paper Optics, a Tennessee-based company is also selling eclipse glasses. The American Astronomical Society also has a list of where to get eclipse glasses.
Warby Parker is also offering free eclipse glasses from April 1 through April 8 while supplies last. The closest location is in Knoxville at 535 Kingston Pike.
This year's total solar eclipse is the last one viewable from the contiguous United States for a while. The next one is not for another 20 years. The next total solar eclipse seen from the lower 48 states will be on August 23, 2044.