America gets solar eclipse mania

The US has moon mania as the first total solar eclipse to stretch coast to coast in almost a century draws near, reports Rob Crilly in Boston

Enthusiasts Tanner Person, right, and Josh Blink, both from Vacaville, California, watch a total solar eclipse while standing atop Carroll Rim Trail at Painted Hills, a unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, near Mitchell, Oregon, US. Adrees Latif / Reuters

People watch the solar eclipse on the lawn of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

Sun spots are visible as the sun emerges from a total eclipse by the moon, on Monday, August 21, 2017, near Redmond, Oregon. Ted S Warren / AP Photo

A woman makes a heart shape with her hands during a partial eclipse of the sun over the 'Roque Nublo' mountain at the Canary Island of Gran Canaria, Spain. Borja Suarez / Reuters

People look towards the sky as enthusiasts gather in Old Havana for the partial solar eclipse in Cuba. Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters

The International Space Station is silhouetted against the sun during a partial solar eclipse as seen from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, in Washington. Bill Ingalls / NASA via AP

The Anjo Moroni statue atop the church of the Mormons is photographed while the solar eclipse is seen in Manaus, Brazil. Bruno Kelly / Reuters

US president Donald Trump looks up towards the solar eclipse without his protective glasses on as he views the eclipse from the Truman balcony of the White House in Washington, US. Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

A solar eclipse shows through a layer of clouds over the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, South Carolina. Wade Spees / The Post And Courier via AP

Cole Whittle, left, and Joe Jonas of multi-platinum-selling band DNCE, joined actress Shay Mitchell to celebrate the Great American Eclipse aboard Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. The ship set sail along the path of totality, offering guests a once-in-a-lifetime view of the epic celestial event. Charles Sykes / Invision for Royal Caribbean International / AP Images

The Saint-They Chapel is seen in silhouette at sunset during a partial solar eclipse, as the moon passes in front of the sun, seen at the Pointe du Van, in Brittany, France. Mal Langsdon / Reuters

The moon covers the sun during a total eclipse in Cerulean, Kentucky. Timothy Easley / AP Photo

Enthusiasts Tanner Person, right, and Josh Blink, both from Vacaville, California, watch a total solar eclipse while standing atop Carroll Rim Trail at Painted Hills, a unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, near Mitchell, Oregon. Adrees Latif / Reuters

A band of twilight will stretch across America at midday on Monday, silencing birds and bringing a swath of the country to a standstill as millions of people soak up the eerie stillness of the first total solar eclipse to stretch coast to coast in almost a century.

In all, as many as seven million people are expected to converge on towns and cities along the 70-mile-wide path of totality for festivals of music, yoga and astronomy.

South Carolina in particular is gearing up for a huge influx. Its location means it is the state closest to the heavily populated Eastern seaboard where viewers will be able to witness the moon pass directly in front of the sun, blotting out all but the halo-like solar corona.

On the other side of the country, thousands more are expected to turn out in Oregon where the moon’s shadow will first make landfall.

But for those who want to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime moment, there is perhaps only one place to be. Bonnie Tyler will be performing her 1983 hit Total Eclipse of the Heart aboard a cruise liner carefully positioned in the path of the eclipse.

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"It’s going to be so exciting," she told Time magazine. "It doesn't happen very often, does it?"

She was due to board the Oasis of the Seas in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday for a special Caribbean cruise.

However, she will have to work fast. She will have and two minutes and 40 seconds to belt out her signature song before the shadow has passed.

At that speed it will cross the continental US in about 90 minutes but that is still enough time – coupled with modern technology from social media to hi-tech optics - to make it a record setter.

“It will certainly be the most observed total eclipse in history," astronomer Rick Fienberg of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) said last week.

Total solar eclipses are rare enough. This one falls across one of the world’s most heavily populated countries at the height of the summer holiday.

As a result, it has been named the Great American Eclipse by excited news channels planning mass coverage and prompted a slew of warnings to ensure observers protect their eyes with eclipse glasses or certified filters.

For true believers, it is sign of great portent.

“I believe it is a prophetic sign,” said Paul Begley, host of the Coming Apocalypse radio show and a popular purveyor of conspiracy theories on YouTube.

Mr Begley cites the Book of Joel (from the Hebrew Bible), which says “the sun shall be turned to darkness” on the day before Christ’s return.

Others have more prosaic concerns. Police, city managers and forest rangers in the total eclipse zone are making plans to deal with the surge in travellers amid fears of mammoth road tailbacks heightened wildfire hazards.

“Imagine 20 Woodstock festivals occurring simultaneously across the nation,” is how Michael Zeiler, an AAS advisory panel member put it on his website, GreatAmericanEclipse.com, drawing a comparison to the sprawling, chaotic 1969 music festival in upstate New York.

Those who miss out this time will not have a long wait for the next big solar eclipse. Although Monday’s is the first to cross the entire continental since 1918 and the first visible anywhere in the mainland US for 38 years, another total eclipse will stretch diagonally from Texas through the north-east states in April 2024.