Family friendly Activities 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Eclipse Crafts
Science of Eclipses
Eclipses in History
Eclipse Explorer Junior Ranger Program (while supplies last)
You can also download the Eclipse Explorer booklet and enjoy the activities at home!
Memorial Rotunda open 9:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. and 3:10 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
(the memorial will close temporarily to allow those working the event to experience totality)
Visitor Center open 9:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. and 3:10 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
(the visitor center will close temporarily to allow those working the event to experience totality)
Parking Area closes at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Safe eclipse viewing through specialized eclipse viewers.
NPS Photo by Neal Herbert
Viewing Eclipses Safely
The only safe way to look directly at the sun during an eclipse is through special-purpose solar filters, like eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewers.
Remember the only safe time to look at the sun without solar filters is during the 2-4 minutes of total eclipse. It is never safe to look at the sun without solar filters during any other phases of the eclipse, or if you are viewing a partial or annular eclipse.
Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun.
Solar filters should have:
An ISO 12312-2:2015 certification
The manufacturer's name and address printed somewhere on the product
Do not use solar filters that are:
Missing ISO certification information
Torn, scratched, or have wrinkled lenses
Coming loose from their frames
Made before 2015
Using Eclipse Filters Correctly
Read and follow the instructions printed on or packaged with the solar filter. Always supervise children using solar filters. To look at the sun during the eclipse, follow these general steps:
Inspect your solar filter before use - if scratched or damaged, discard it and find a new filter. If one is not available, read our section on Eclipse Viewing Without a Solar Filter.
Before looking at the sun, put on your eclipse glasses or hold your handheld solar viewer up to your eyes.
After viewing the sun with your solar filter, turn away from the sun before removing. Do not remove your solar filter while looking at the sun.
If you are within the path of totality, you can remove your solar filter only when the moon completely covers the sun's face and it suddenly gets very dark. As soon as the bright sun begins to reappear, reapply your solar viewer to glance at the remaining partial phases.
This document does not constitute medical advice. Readers with questions should contact a qualified eye-care professional.
Eclipse Viewing With Optical Devices
Do not look at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun through an unfiltered camera, telescope, binoculars, or other optical device. Similarly, do not look at the sun through a camera, telescope, binoculars or any other optical device while using your eclipse glasses or hand-held solar vieiwer - the concentrated solar rays will damage the filter and enter your eye(s), causing serious injury.
Map shows the paths of the eclipses of 2023 and 2024 in dark gray and the eclipse of 1778 in yellow.
Credit: NASA and NPS/A. Case
George Rogers Clark and the 1778 Eclipse
The total solar eclipse of 1778 often gets overshadowed by the annular eclipse of 1777, known as Washington's eclipse, and the eclipse of 1806 known as Tecumpsah's eclipse. Few people recorded their experiences of the 1778 eclipse, George Rogers Clark only mentions it briefly in his memoirs. Did they know the eclipse was coming and use the darkness to hide from scouts along the river bank?
The map on the right shows the path of totality in yellow. A white star shows the location of The Falls of the Ohio where Clark and his group were canoing the falls. They likely would have traveled under a sun at least 80% eclipsed.
...of June 1778 we left our little Island and Run about a mile up the River in order to gain the main channel and shot the Fall at the very moment of the suns being in a great Eclipse which caused Various conjectures among the superstitious...
-Memoirs of Gen. George Rogers Clark
Clark may have been unsure of the exact date when he wrote his memoirs many years later, however a letter from Simon Newcombe of the National Observatory at Washington in reply to an inquiry by W. S. Burnham confirmed that there was indeed an eclipse visible from Louisville in June of 1778.
...I find by reference to the ephemerides that on the morning of June 24th 1778, there was a total eclipse of the sun visible in this country, the moon's shadowpassing over the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
At Louisville the sun must have been four-fifths or even nine-tenths covered about nine o'clock in the morning.
-S. Newcomb
Eclipse Soundscapes, an enterprise of ARISA Lab, LLC and is supported by NASA
Eclipse Citizen Science
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park is participating in a few NASA-sponsored citizen science projects during the eclipse. These projects are croudsourcing observations from across the country. Visit the following websites to learn more about how you can be a scientist on eclipse day!
The Eclipse Soundscapes project is studying how eclipses effect life on Earth during total and annular eclipses. It will revisit a 100 year old study that showed that animals and insects are affected by solar eclipses.
We're deploying an audio receiver in the park to monitor natural sounds before, during, and after the eclipse. We'll also have information about eclipse science in the park!
If you're interested in learning about the effects eclipses have on animals or participating in this project visit the eclipse soundscapes webpage!
GLOBE Eclipse is a temporary tool in the GLOBE Observer App that will help you document air temperature and clouds during the eclipse. Why are air temperature and cloud observations important? Changes in sunlight can also cause changes in temperature, clouds and wind. Scientists are interested in finding out what happens in the atmosphere when the Sun is blocked by the moon during an eclipse and how the eclipse affects solar powered processes.
The GLOBE Eclipse tool is only available on the app when a solar eclipse is happening somewhere in the world.
Visit the Globe Observer - Eclipse webpage to learn more about this project!
Join park rangers and volunteers at Wayne's Woods picnic area on Monday, April 8, 2024 from 2 PM to 4:30 PM to watch the partial solar eclipse. Pick up a free pair of eclipse glasses (while supplies last), earn a special Junior Ranger Eclipse Explorer badge, look through a solar telescope, learn about the science of eclipses, and hear a special ranger talk about the historical solar eclipses experienced by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Offices:Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers Directorate
Public programming for the 2024 Total Eclipse was a team effort! With help from Earth to Sky—an organization that fosters collaboration between NASA and the National Park Service—visitors at Hot Springs National Park and other NPS sites in the eclipse path got to experience awe and learning as they witnessed the April 8, 2024 Total Eclipse.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a deep-partial solar eclipse shadowed the grounds of Fort Stanwix National Monument in Rome, NY. This amazing occurrence is the last time the park will see such a complete solar eclipse until the year 2079! As such, the scientific data collected during the day has been preserved for posterity on the following page.
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial welcomed all visitors to experience the total solar eclipse!
Evansville Association for the Blind at the invitation of Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial staff helped people with limited and no vision understand and participate in the excitement and learning opportunities of the solar eclipse through hands-on tactile and participatory learning models and methods.
Kids and the young at heart can learn about solar eclipses with this Eclipse Explorer Junior Ranger program from the National Park Service and The Planetary Society.
Locations:Aztec Ruins National Monument, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Hovenweep National Monument, Petrified Forest National Park
Offices:Archeology Program
People in the past carved petroglyphs and painted pictographs to mark the cycle of the sun, moon, and stars; solstices; and the changing seasons. They tracked time by creating solar calendars that interacted with light and shadow as the sun moved across the sky. When unique astronomical events took place, they documented the moment in stone. Learn more about the purpose for these images.
Two spectacular solar eclipse events will be visible from parks across the continental United States in 2023 and 2024. On October 14, 2023, an annular solar eclipse will cross the sky from Oregon to Texas. On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be visible as it crosses from Texas to Maine. Learn more about the different types of eclipses and how to view them safely.
National Park Service employees and partners with the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division captured compelling photos and videos of the changing sky and landscape during the 2017 solar eclipse-new moon passage, and people enjoying this celestial event.
1097 July 11: A symbol carved into rock (called a petroglyph) in Chaco Culture National Historical Park may be a representation of a total solar eclipse. The symbol, a filled-in circle with squiggly lines shooting out around its edge, has a small, filled-in circle just to its upper left. Scientists hypothesize that the symbol represents the sun in total eclipse...
Locations:Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Big Cypress National Preserve, Buck Island Reef National Monument, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, Congaree National Park, Craters Of The Moon National Monument & Preserve, Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, Grand Teton National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Harry S Truman National Historic Site, Homestead National Historical Park, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Obed Wild & Scenic River, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Stones River National Battlefieldmore »
A solar eclipse is visually stunning, but what will it sound like? NPS scientists will find out by recording sounds in parks across the USA.
