An interview with eclipse expert David Baron

Eclipse expert and science writer David Baron has ideas about the best ways to experience the 2024 total eclipse and how special it is for Cape Girardeau to have two total eclipses within the past 7 years.

He lives in Colorado and has experienced multiple eclipses from South America to Europe and Australia to Indonesia. He also released a book about the total solar eclipse of 1878 the "AMERICAN ECLIPSE: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World".

He recently participated in an interview about the upcoming event.

Q: What stands out to you about this year's eclipse the most?

Baron: "The fact that Cape Girardeau was in the path of a total eclipse seven years ago makes it seem like this is an everyday event, almost. It is not. You guys won the jackpot of the solar system to get two total solar eclipses so close together, there won't be a total solar eclipse going over my house in Boulder, Colorado, until the year 2772 more than 700 years from now. This is really rare, so appreciate just how rare it is."

Q: Why should people who are in full totality go out of their way to see the eclipse?

Baron: "A total solar eclipse is the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature. It is like nothing else. It's one of the few things in life that lives up to the hype or actually, I would say exceeds the hype. A total solar eclipse, it's the closest thing to space travel that you can experience without leaving the Earth. I mean, it's a brief moment when in the middle of the day the blue sky gets stripped away, enabling you to actually look into outer space during the daytime toward the center of the solar system, and you will see a sky like you've never seen before."

Q: What are the key things to look out for when experiencing the total eclipse?

Baron: "You must be within the path of totality, the approximately 100-mile wide zone. Of course, Cape Girardeau is perfectly positioned. But for anyone who is reading this, who is outside the area. I mean, for folks in St. Louis or in Memphis (Tennessee), they're gonna see a deep partial eclipse. But that is a fundamentally different experience. You must get within that path to experience the full glory of a total eclipse. A partial eclipse is just not the same thing. So that's No. 1. No. 2, you want to be under clear skies, and, you know, if it is a completely overcast day, there's no sugar coating it. It's gonna be disappointing. There are eclipse chasers who will make a last-minute decision to drive 500 miles or at least 100 miles if that means getting out from cloudy skies. Hopefully, that won't be an issue on April 8, but that's another consideration. However, I mean, there are many ways to see a total eclipse that as long as you're in the path and you're under clear skies, there's really no wrong way to do it."

Q: How should people prepare for the eclipse?

Baron: "The best advice is to get where you're going early and to leave late. Then so for me now again, you guys (people in Cape Girardeau) are right in the path, so you're golden. I live in Colorado. I'm flying to Texas for the eclipse. I'm flying there on Friday, and I'm flying home on Tuesday because I don't want to be stuck in the traffic on the eclipse day. I want to just be where I'm going and sit still. It tends to be, the traffic is worse right after the eclipse. People will probably be trickling into the area over a long weekend. But as soon as the total eclipse is over on Monday afternoon, they're all going to jump in their cars and wanna go home to jobs and school and stuff like that."

Q: What are some interesting things you've learned about the history of solar eclipses?

Baron: "One of the wonderful things about total eclipses is that they really connect people. I mean experiencing a total solar eclipse with friends or family or even strangers is a real bonding experience to share this such an unusual and spectacular event that many people most people never even see in their lifetime. It's something you'll always remember, and it's just this shared human moment, but also, a total solar eclipse helps connect people over the centuries because a total solar eclipse is the same human experience today as it was 100, 150 years ago."