Apr 6, 2024 3 min read

What could be bigger than Taylor Swift?

Maybe the solar eclipse that is set to happen Monday.

Various prognosticators say the rare alignment of the Earth, moon and sun will be a bonanza for the slice of the United States stretching from Texas to Maine that will experience a total eclipse. Alas, the Pittsburgh region will have to settle for 96% totality, and it will start around 1:50 Monday afternoon and it will reach its darkest point about 85 minutes later. But this area is very close to locations that will be in the zone of totality, such as Erie, Niagara Falls, N.Y., Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio.

How big a deal will it be? Officials in the region around Niagara Falls have declared a state of emergency because of the crush of people they anticipate will be descending on the Falls to take in the eclipse. In Ohio’s Lucas County, which includes Toledo, tourism officials say the population of the county could triple on Monday.

All of this will bring a massive infusion of revenue to the places where a total eclipse can be seen. All told, up to 4 million people are expected to travel for the occasion, and they will spend millions of dollars on lodging, food and gasoline. What has been called the Great American Eclipse will truly be an event in many locations.

Unfortunately, with money to be made off the eclipse, it’s perhaps inevitable that unscrupulous people are trying to elbow their way into the marketplace by selling viewing glasses that are not certified by the International Organization for Standardization. Experts say a quick way to spot legitimate viewing glasses from fake ones is that the fakes just seem like sunglasses. Glasses that are certified and safe to use should not allow a user to see anything on a sunny day once they put them on, except maybe the sun’s reflection on surface objects, and that should only be faint.

Many school districts in this region have either called off classes that day or are going to remote instruction, and that makes sense. Officials are understandably concerned about student safety – and their own liability – if students are looking skyward at the eclipse, which will be happening right around dismissal time. It will, of course, also be a valuable educational experience, something worthwhile outside the bounds of the regular school day.

Considering another eclipse like this one will not be coming near this area until the end of the century, everyone should pause for a little while on Monday and take in this awe-inspiring event.

Bina Venkataraman, a columnist for The Washington Post, explained that watching the sun disappear and then reemerge during an eclipse “is miraculous in part because it reminds us that the sun makes all life on the planet possible.”