No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
—Helen Keller (author-activist)
The number one astrotourist event is a total solar eclipse. It towers above all other celestial phenomena, generating more press and temporarily relocating more people than any other event. Eclipse chasers and the tours that service them have been around for more than half a century. Paul D. Maley, the founder of Ring of Fire Expeditions, the longest consecutive astronomical tour organization in the United States, had this to share about the surge in interest.
Astro tourism is on the rise. While I don’t have specific proof in terms of numbers of people, the increase in wealth as people age show that most people 50+ are responsible for that increase with Ring of Fire Expeditions. Younger people, not so much since they are predominantly having to work. Since the August 2017 solar eclipse there has been a dramatic rise in inquiries from US eclipse watchers. Since the August 2017 solar eclipse there has been a dramatic rise in inquiries from US eclipse watchers. Our inquiries increased by 30% in the past 2 years. Increasing astrotourism has caused small towns to fill up faster and we now have to work 3–4 years in advance of every eclipse trip to verify we can get the space that before we could get in 1 year’s advance planning cycle.
These “once-in-a-lifetime” events are really happening all the time but to view them literally requires chasing them down by traveling the globe. The last total solar eclipse that traversed the continental United States was in 2017 and it created substantive data that is being studied to forecast what can be expected in 2024. According to Martin Knopp, an administrator at the Federal Highway Administration,
Depending on weather and how many people are up for a Monday road trip, some two to seven million of them are expected to travel to that narrow zone on August 21, 2017—meaning travelers may experience some of the worst traffic jams in American history.
The days before and after the eclipse could see humans’ greatest temporary mass migration to see a natural event in U.S. history.1
There is nothing else on the planet that moves so many people, figuratively and literally, as a total solar eclipse. This singular moment in time remains etched in a person’s memory to the end of their days and drives more people to astrotourism than anything else. Since North America’s 2017 solar eclipse, interest in the wonders of the sky has skyrocketed. Scott Dunn, an award-winning luxury tour operator, notes that bookings for astro-experiences have recently tripled.
While it is hard to quantify how many travelers are stargazing in dark sky spots and traveling to see eclipses, astrotourism (traveling for astronomical experiences) is one of the top travel trends for 2019. In 2019, expect star-seekers to venture everywhere from Portugal’s Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve to Chile for a total solar eclipse set to occur on July 2, 2019, and January 3, 2019.2 Looking back at the data from the 2017 eclipse, a great number of vendors, from souvenir stores, restaurants, and mom-and-pop shops, to major hotel chains, all benefited from people’s curiosity about this rare astronomical phenomenon. There was a flood of memorabilia manufactured and purchased. Even the United States Postal Service celebrated the moment by issuing a heat-sensitive eclipse stamp. When a finger touches the stamp, the shadow in front of the sun disappears, and the moon appears, complete with lunar surface detail.
Marriott International reported the total number of rooms booked in 16 locations in the eclipse path was up 60 percent compared to the previous year in those same locations. At one Hilton hotel located in the totality path, which had not yet sold-out, rates started at $425. For the previous week, the same room was available for $199.3
In 2017, it was estimated that 88 percent of American adults—about 215 million people—watched the solar eclipse, either in person or electronically. That is near twice the number of people that watched the Super Bowl that year. If the eclipse had been a television program, it would have garnered the most viewers of any in American history; the audience for the cosmic event was almost 18 times greater than the “Game of Thrones” finale a week later.4
This illustrates how astrotourism transcends many of the demographics and cultural differences among people, bringing them together under one roof—a roof with stars on its ceiling.
“What is most exciting about April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse is that the total phase of the eclipse is nearly twice as long as the 2017 Eclipse,” said Michael Zeiler, an eclipse cartographer.
This eclipse is going to be a much bigger deal than in 2017. While 12 million people in the United States lived within the path of the 2017 eclipse, 32 million people already reside within the path of the 2024 eclipse.5
The totality path will pass over some 15.2 million people who live in cities with populations of one million or more. As solar eclipses are the gateway into astronomy, it can be anticipated that a great number of people will whet their appetite and want to see more of a night sky replete with stars. “We calculate that even if 1% of the 12 million that live within the Path of Totality in 2017 finds a passion for eclipse chasing, that will effectively create a much larger audience,” says Aram Kaprielian, International President at Travel Quest, who has seen over 20 total solar eclipses.
When the sky goes black in the blink-of-an-eye, it is as startling as anything a human can witness. No wonder the uninitiated thought the world was coming to an end, since night does not just fall, it slams shut. Our normal experience is witnessing the stars slowly appear, one at a time, over the course of twilight’s last gleaming. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, depending upon one’s latitude, to descend from daylight into the darkness of astronomical twilight.
Figure 7.1 Charting eclipses 2021 to 2040
During a total solar eclipse, there is no twilight. All of the stars appear instantaneously, and the response is involuntary. One thing that can be said about astrotourism is that it fully exemplifies the expression, “Life is not about how many breaths you take, but by how many times your breath is taken away.”
The 2024 Eclipse will be passing over multiple highly-populated cities. Many of the residents have never seen a starry sky due to the dome of light that hangs over many of our cities. Hopefully, millions of people will have the opportunity to see the stars, even if momentarily. However, if municipalities fail to shut down specific power grids, their photo-sensor street lights will come on during this fleeting nightfall. If a city’s street lights come on, it will profoundly impact a total solar eclipse’s full spectacle and look much like any other night.
Hopefully, the mayors of cities in the path of totality will follow the example of New York City in January 1986, dubbed “Halley’s Comet Night,” by then-New York Mayor Ed Koch. In all five boroughs, Koch had arranged for designated locations to temporarily extinguish their normally bright lights to allow New Yorkers to have a better view of this famous comet, which was low in the western evening sky. About 40,000 people gathered at Jones Beach, Long Island, to catch a glimpse of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Compared to the “Great American Total Eclipse” of August 21, 2017, the 2024 eclipse will be far superior. The totality path will be roughly 40 percent wider, and the duration of totality along the centerline of the eclipse path will last anywhere from 42 to 107 seconds, longer than the maximum duration of the 2017 eclipse.6 Because both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses passed and will pass, over both Makanda and Carbondale, Illinois, they are touting themselves as the place where the two centerlines cross, with Carbondale and its Southern Illinois University partner adopting the tagline, “Eclipse Crossroads of America.”
The most advantageous place for observing is just outside Nazas, Mexico, where the centerline duration is 4 minutes and 28 seconds. Nowhere else will the eclipsed sun appear higher or totality last longer. These factors will almost certainly attract many amateur and professional astronomers and tour operators to Mexico, where good weather prospects are very encouraging. Indeed, Nazas is already being dubbed “Eclipse City.” Its proximity to the point of greatest eclipse is mentioned on its Wikipedia page.6 When the moon covers around 90 percent of the sun, the light will begin to fade dramatically to create an eerie, silvery atmosphere, and shadows become sharper. By standing under a tree and watching the sun’s light filtered by the leaves, the viewer will see hundreds of tiny crescents of light on the ground. Punching a hole in the top of a take-out coffee cup or a piece of cardboard will serve the same purpose as the leaves. There is a rapid drop in temperature.
Spending the money on eclipse glasses is essential to protect your eyes, as they are indispensable to watch the moon passing over the sun’s face before the moment of totality—this is the only time you can look directly at the sun safely. They can be found online, and links are listed in the Resource section of this book. An alternative method for safe viewing of the partially eclipsed sun is to cross the outstretched, slightly open fingers of one hand over the outstretched, slightly open fingers of the other, creating a waffle pattern. Facing away from the sun, look at your hand’s shadow on the ground. The little spaces between your fingers, where the sun penetrates, will project a grid of small images on the ground, showing the sun as a crescent during the partial phases of the eclipse.
If past migrations to see a solar eclipse are any indication, all roads will lead to the path of totality in 2024. For 2019, one of the largest cities in the path of totality, San Juan, Argentina, was one of the most popular eclipse destinations. Its population of 112,000 was expected to quintuple on the days surrounding the eclipse.7 Other than famine, war, or catastrophes, there is no single event on earth with more people migrating than to witness an eclipse. An estimated 130 million people will be positioned either inside or within less than a day’s drive of the total eclipse zone.
The American portion of the total track of totality will average 184 kilometers in width and stretch from southwest Texas to northern Maine. There is every reason to believe that the 2024 event will surpass the number of people traveling in 2017, as there are larger population centers nearby. The big question is, “Where are people going to park?” It is not hard to imagine that traffic literally comes to a standstill during the moment of totality, as people will likely stop their car to look at one of the greatest celestial events of all time
Major metropolitan areas, like Pittsburgh, Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville, and Detroit, are only a few hours’ drives from the path of totality. Even with Detroit’s 99.4 percent partial eclipse, it is still not enough to create the conditions where the viewer can look directly at the sun.8 Cultures from time’s beginning have sought to explain solar eclipses, and while some ancients could predict these events, others created tales that were totally void of science.
Figure 7.2 North American Eclipse 2024
Source: Great American Eclipse.com
• The ancient Chinese did not believe a solar eclipse was simply the Moon covering the Sun; they determined a dragon was devouring it. This alarming consensus prompted them to clang pots, bang drums, and howl to frighten the dragon away.
• To the ancient Greeks, a solar eclipse meant the gods demonstrated their anger and signaling the start of earthly destruction.
• According to Choctaw legend, a mischievous black squirrel gnawing on the Sun is the cause of eclipses.
• Ojibwa and Cree’s peoples have a story that a boy (or sometimes a dwarf) named Tcikabis sought revenge on the Sun for burning him. Despite the protestations of his sister, he caught the Sun in a snare, causing an eclipse. Various animals tried to release the Sun from the trap, but only the lowly mouse could chew through the ropes and set the Sun back on its path.
• According to ancient Hindu legend, a cunning demon named Rahu sought to drink the nectar of the gods and thus attain immortality. As punishment, the demon was promptly beheaded, and it is his decapitated head flying across the sky that darkens the Sun during an eclipse. His immortal head, in perpetual pursuit of the Sun, sometimes catches and swallows it, but the Sun quickly reappears, as Rahu has no throat.
• The Inca of South America worshiped Inti, the all-powerful Sun God. Inti was generally believed to be benevolent, but solar eclipses were understood to be a sign of his wrath and displeasure.9
The plans for the 2024 event are already underway. The solar eclipse of 2017 was not 24 hours old when the Maria International Travel Agency in Detroit started receiving calls for hotel and flight reservations for the areas in the path of the 2024 eclipse.10 Being within the path of totality is better than being outside it, but some places within the path may be better than others, depending on preferences and budget. Experienced eclipse chasers aim to balance three factors: duration of totality, local accommodations, amenities, and attractions, and the likelihood of clear skies.11