Chicago's Adler Planetarium prepares for solar eclipse activities
CHICAGO (CBS) – Next week's solar eclipse will require special shades when the moon and sun align.
The last time a total eclipse was visible in Chicago was 2017.
Experts say on April 8 in Chicago, the sun will be covered at about 94%. A team from the Adler Planetarium is preparing for the big event in Chicago and Carbondale in southern Illinois.
"It's so exciting to be a part of this big team that's all really, really thrilled for it," said Hunter Miller, a public observing educator at the Adler Planetarium.
He added, "This is on such a grand scale. Feeling those effects on your person, the shade from the moon, feeling it get colder, seeing it get so darker and, you know, connecting with space on this really grand scheme of things."
Miller said in 2017, 60,000 people showed up to view the eclipse at the planetarium. This year, they're expecting to have an even bigger crowd.
"As a community, it's just such an awesome opportunity and one, you know, we don't get very often," he said. "It's literally once in a lifetime, well, I guess for us, twice in a lifetime chance."
The Adler Planetarium is planning a big event for the solar eclipse. They'll have tents, telescopes and filters to watch the eclipse.
"While we may not see totality here, we'll still have 94% of the sun obscured by the moon, and so it'll still be awesome to view here in Chicago," Miller said.
Although it won't be a full totality in Chicago, people will still need an eclipse shade to view the eclipse.
"The eclipse here in Chicago will start at 12:51 and extend to 3:22," Miller said. "So you're looking at about two-and-a-half hours of the eclipse going on."
Some 13 states and dozens of cities are in the path of the totality for the 2024 total solar eclipse coming up on April 8. Carbondale is one of those cities.
"For any particular location on earth, you'll only see a total solar eclipse once about every 350 years," Miller said. "So seven years apart is a remarkable occurrence."
Miller and others from the planetarium will start the festivities early. Astro World Trip is a team of scientists and Adler representatives who will road trip to Carbondale in a custom warped van.
"We'll be carrying all of our supplies down there," he said. "Telescopes that we can use for a few telescope-observing events, lots of supplies all about modeling eclipses and learning how they work out in space."
But the trip won't be a straight shot down. They'll stop at schools and libraries along the way to talk all things eclipse.
The next total solar eclipse in the U.S. is set for August 2044.