MD Viewing For Great American Solar Eclipse: What To Know

MARYLAND — The 2024 Great American Solar Eclipse has Marylanders buzzing about how to watch the historic event, and while the state is outside the path of totality, the April 8 eclipse won’t be a complete bust.

So it's time to order protective eyewear to watch the eclipse safely, and pick a viewing spot.

The Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St. in Baltimore, will host a watch party for the eclipse. The event is free to anyone with paid admission and will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Only our yellow star’s spiky corona will be visible in the 15 states in the path of totality. We’ll see a less dramatic blockage of the sun in Maryland, with more than 80 percent totality as the moon passes between the sun and Earth.

Here are times for maximum eclipse and percent totality in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., region:

Washington, D.C.
3:20:32 PM EDT
87.4%

Virginia Beach, VA
3:20:44 PM EDT
78.1%

Annapolis, MD
3:21:21 PM EDT
86.8%

Baltimore, MD
3:21:22 PM EDT
88.2%

Here are the times to keep in mind on April 8 in Maryland (all times local):

• Partial eclipse begins: 2 p.m. ET
• Partial eclipse ends: 4:34 p.m. ET

Eclipse preparation Job 1 is to acquire protective eye equipment to block the harmful solar radiation. Amazon has a wide collection of NASA-approved solar eclipse glasses, and the American Astronomical Society has more vendors whose eclipse glasses have been certified as safe. Wherever you acquire protective eyewear, it should meet or exceed the international safety standard of ISO 12312-2:2015.

You’ll also need special solar filters for cameras, binoculars and telescopes, even in places far outside the path of totality, like the northwest corner of Washington state, which will see only 16 percent totality.

“Viewing any part of the bright Sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury,” NASA said.

One other safe way to view the eclipse is with a do-it-yourself pinhole projector that shows the sun on a nearby surface. The American Astronomical Society has pinhole projector DIY instructions.

Path Of Totality

The 15 states in the path of totality are Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

For Maryland residents who are willing to travel and be part of the revelry — and if the total eclipse seven years ago is a good measuring stick, there will be plenty of it — the best bet is Texas.

The duration of totality will be up to 4 minutes and 24 seconds in Eagle Pass, Texas, beginning at 1:27 p.m. Central Daylight Time. For comparison, the eclipse reaches totality about an hour later, at 3:29 p.m. EDT in Jackman, Maine, and lasts about 3 minutes and 26 seconds.

If you’re traveling, be prepared to pay more. Hotel rooms in prime eclipse cities are becoming increasingly hard to find and more expensive, according to Travel + Leisure. So are 2024 Airbnb rentals. Finding a camping spot is another option.

A Bigger Deal Than 2017

The 2024 eclipse is a much bigger deal than the 2017 Great American Eclipse, when only about 12 million people lived in the path of totality. This time, something like 31 million U.S. residents live in places that will see daytime darkness at the peak of the eclipse. Another 1 million to 4 million people are expected to make a pilgrimage to states in the path of totality, according to eclipse travel projections.

Those numbers add up to a celebration likely to eclipse the coast-to-coast sun party seven years ago. There were solar eclipse marriages. Aboard a cruise, Bonnie Tyler sang her 1970s hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on a cruise ship the exact moment the moon covers the sun.

It will be March 30, 2033, before another total solar eclipse touches the United States, and that’s only on the tip of Alaska. It’ll be Aug. 12, 2044, before the next eclipse sweeps across the lower 48 states, with parts of Montana and North Dakota experiencing totality.

• Related: The 2024 Great American Solar Eclipse Is A Really Big Deal: Here’s Why

Window For Solar Scientists

Another thing that makes the 2024 solar eclipse markedly different from the 2017 event is that it’s occurring as the sun is at its peak activity cycle, called solar maximum. In 2017, the sun was approaching minimum. This year’s eclipse opens a unique window for scientists to study the sun’s corona.

“The eclipse that we have coming up in 2024 is going to be a very different eclipse from what we saw in 2017 because this corona that we see is going to have much more structure,” Lisa Upton, a solar scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, told Scientific American.

The violent solar storms occurring right now are responsible for auroras that dance far outside their Arctic and Antarctic ranges but also carry the potential to knock out internet satellites for months, take down power grids, and interfere with navigation satellites. Right now, these events happen with little warning, but scientists are working on their ability to predict space weather.

• Related: 2024 Guide To Meteor Showers, Solar Eclipse, Supermoons And More