Total Solar Eclipse: How Much Silver Spring Will See, Timing

SILVER SPRING, MD — Excitement is building in Silver Spring for the April 8 total solar eclipse. We’re not among some 32 million Americans living in the path of totality, but we will experience the phenomenon.

In the United States, the path of totality extends from Texas to Maine, but each of the 48 continental states will see some of the solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon slips between our bright star and Earth.

None of the total solar eclipse will reach Maryland, but the partial eclipse will be viewable. In Silver Spring, the moon will cover about 87.9 percent of the sun at the peak of the eclipse, according to a NASA map that is searchable by ZIP code.

Here are the details:

• Partial eclipse begins: 2:04 p.m.
• Maximum: 3:20 p.m.
• Partial ends: 4:32 p.m.

The eclipse will last nearly two and a half hours from beginning to end in Silver Spring.

Silver Spring area solar eclipse viewing events on April 8 include:

• Solar Eclipse Festival on the National Mall: 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• 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.
• NASA's Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt is celebrating the partial eclipse with activities at its visitor center from 1 to 3 p.m. Activities will include viewings of the Sun with safe solar glasses, a corona art project, a Sunspotter demonstration, and presentations by solar scientists. Registration is required.
• College Park Aviation Museum is hosting a viewing on its grounds with free eclipse viewing glasses.

The total solar eclipse starts in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as small parts of Tennessee and Michigan, before entering Canada in southern Ontario through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton before exiting continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

• Related: Animals May Behave Oddly During Eclipse