ROANOKE, Va. – Darkness descends next week, as a total eclipse moves in. All across Southwest Virginia, parties will commemorate the occasion that won’t happen again for another two decades.
“This celestial phenomenon is an absolutely amazing thing,” Rhett Herman, Radford eclipse event organizer said. ”People don’t always look up. We’re so busy looking around in our two-dimensional world. This is a nice excuse to be able to think about our broader place in the universe.”
In the Roanoke Valley area, you’ll only see the moon block about 85% of the sun, but that won’t stop the watch parties. Radford University invites students and the public to come watch the eclipse with them.
“It is free, that is what we do,” Herman said. “We educate people, we’re glad to be a community and university resource.”
Just down the road, Virginia Tech plans to have telescopes out for viewers to use.
“You can see the sun with a magnification of about 20, so you can see it much better through that,” Nahum Arav, Virginia Tech eclipse event organizer said.
In Roanoke, the Science Museum of Western Virginia will have a planetarium show and eclipse-related crafts.
“Eight years ago, when we had the last partial eclipse come through here, we didn’t have the planetarium set up,” Chris Savage with the Science Museum of Western Virginia said. “We didn’t have the facilities to really be able to do it justice, and they are a fairly rare occurrence. So the fact that we’ve had two in eight years is already lucky.”
While you’re traveling to your watch party, make sure you allow plenty of time to get there, you may not want to be on the road while it’s happening and distracting other drivers.
“Drivers should not wear those sunglasses meant to see the eclipse while they’re driving,” VDOT spokesperson Jessica Cowardin said. “It’s important not to pull over on the side of the road during the eclipse. Have a plan and prepare to stop to view that eclipse.”
To view a full list of solar eclipse viewing events happening in our region, click here.