Total solar eclipse happening in 2024 in the Tri-State

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - On April 8, 2024, most of the Tri-State will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience a total solar eclipse from their own back yards.

Many people around the Tri-State remember the excitement that surrounded the solar eclipse in 2017, but most of us had to travel south to experience total darkness.

Darkness in the middle of the day is what Evansville, and much of the rest of the Tri-State, will experience on April 8, 2024.

Director of Science Experiences at the Evansville Museum, Mitch Luman, explained what exactly happens during a solar eclipse.

“It will get so dark that the sun will be gone, two planets will be visible in the sky, and it will look just like twilight,” says Luman. “This is more than just getting dark. It’s kind of a spiritual experience because there is nothing like it in the world.”

Using the museum’s planetarium, Leman walked through a simulation of what will happen in Evansville on that day of darkness.

Totality also changes how you can safely view certain parts of that eclipse.

“During this eclipse, it is safe to look at the sun, but only during the short amount of time that the sun is in totality,” says Luman. “Eclipse glasses will get you through the partial phases, then you take them off during totality, and put them on afterwards.”

Luman said, on average, you have to wait about 400 years to see another total solar eclipse in the same place, but we are just in the right place at the right time.

Depending on the weather that day and a few other factors, he also said Evansville could also see around 100,000 visitors coming to experience our day of darkness.

Copyright 2023 WFIE. All rights reserved.