Viewed from the path of totality – that narrow track where the moon will completely obscure the sun – April 8’s total solar eclipse will cast viewers into three or four minutes of midday dark. And LA’s eclipse chasers aren’t settling for anything less.
While Southern California will experience a partial eclipse, many locals are traveling thousands of miles to Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, or Ohio for what Griffith Observatory Director Dr. Edwin Krupp describes as a breathtaking view.
“It starts as a little bite, a little nick, and then it gets bigger and bigger,” says Krupp, who is taking a group to Mazatlan to view the total solar eclipse – his seventeenth.
Temperatures will drop. Winds may kick up. Critters, believing it's nighttime, will come out to play. And up in the sky, threads of visible light will billow from the sun’s corona, like wings.
“There's probably nothing in the sky – and one might almost argue in all of nature – that is as spectacular and as emotionally moving as a total solar eclipse,” Krupp says. “Most people who have not seen a total solar eclipse think that that is hyperbole until they see one.”
But LA’s eclipse chasers aren’t traveling for the view alone. Many are searching for something like a cosmic connection.
Palmdale aerospace engineer David Goreschak is headed to Arkansas with his boyfriend, mom, and 12-year-old cousin, who he’s hoping will take the opportunity to disconnect from technology and tune in to the cosmos.
“She's glued to her phone most of the time,” Goreschak says. “I'm hoping that for a couple hours we can pry away from that, and that she can look through the glasses and just be awe-inspired.”
Others want more than awe; they want an awakening. Tujunga insurance broker Boris Batchiyski saw his first solar eclipse in Oregon back in 2017 and got hooked. This time around, he’s traveling to Missouri or Illinois – whichever has a better weather forecast in the immediate hours before the event.
“I'm not a religious person. I'm not even a believer,” he says, “but I would call this a spiritual experience.”
Bob Velker has the same idea. He’s a pilot from Diamond Bar flying to Texas for his first solar eclipse. He’s looking for an experience like the first astronauts on the moon had, looking back at the green and blue Earth.
“It changes your perspective on humanity, and each other, and the big picture,” he says. “This is in that same category.”
For another Texas-bound eclipse chaser, San Diego IT manager Tony Patti, the cosmic event is meant to be shared.
“You're surrounded by people who maybe have different beliefs than you or come from different backgrounds,” Patti says. “You're all experiencing this together and there's nothing to argue about.”
For those who aren’t planning travel, a partial solar eclipse will still be viewable in Southern California.
At its peak here in LA – at 11:12 a.m. – the moon will block out 49% of the sun’s surface. Krupp, from the Griffith Observatory, says shadows will look fuzzy, and sunlight filtering through tree leaves will project small crescent suns onto the ground below.
But if you can get away, consider it. Monday is your last chance to see a total solar eclipse in the U.S. for a generation. The next one isn't until 2044.
