2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Visitors sit on towels and blankets watching the 2017 partial eclipse.

NPS Photo

Eclipse Weekend Activities

Events are taking place all around Vincennes, for those activities please see 2024 Solar Eclipse Events | Dark Side of the Wabash | Vincennes, Indiana (vincenneseclipse.com)

At the Park

All times listed are Eastern Time

Saturday, April 6, 2024

• Junior Ranger Activities 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

• Memorial open 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

• Visitor Center open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• Parking Area closes at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Sunday, April 7, 2024

• Junior Ranger Activities 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

• Memorial Open 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

• Visitor Center open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• Parking Area closes at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Monday, April 8, 2024

Information about Eclipse Shuttles and parking around town is now on the Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana eclipse website (vincenneseclipse.com)

• 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!

 

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