Pennsylvania will once again be in the direct line of a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The last time Pennsylvania was in direct line with a total eclipse was 1806. While the path is somewhat westwardly oriented in comparison to the last total eclipse, much of Pennsylvania will lie within the paths of totality or partial totality.

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth that either fully or partially blocks the Sun’s light in some areas. The light from the solar eclipse is dangerous and could damage your eyes leaving you blind. Even though it is still the sun’s light which we are used to, during the solar eclipse it gets very dark causing our pupils to dilate to take in even more light then we normally would from the sun, but when it goes into the 100% totality phase then you are able to look at it until it is over. That’s why everybody is told to wear special glasses for the solar eclipse to watch it outside of the 100% phase.

 Because of how rare an event this is for this area there is an estimated 200,000-250,000 people to be traveling to the Erie area for the solar eclipse and that’s not including the amount of people that already live there. But for people who are still near it but not in the totality range will still see a lot of people out looking at the eclipse.

A lot of people today are scared of the solar eclipse because they’re saying it could be the start of the revelations, while some think the opposite and that it’s completely okay and everything is just a coincidence so it has stirred up a lot of attention on social media. Their reasoning for that is it was rumored that the 100% totality range was covering multiple different cities called Nineveh, which was a prophecy in the bible and because of that people thought it would be the start of the end of the world but as we saw, it didn’t.

I went to Meadville to go see the solar eclipse which was a good decision because we were in the 100% totality area while If I didn’t do that and I stayed in the county It wouldn’t have been as cool. The drive to Meadville was a lot longer than usual because of all the traffic on the way there and back but it was still worth it. 

Sources:

https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/SolarEclipse/Pages/default.aspx#:~:text=The%20last%20time%20 Pennsylvania%20was,of%20 totality%20 or%20 partial%20 totality

 

https://nationaleclipse.com/