Everything to Know About the Total Solar Eclipse Coming to Upstate New York Next Month
PLUS: Saratoga summer camp wars, the YMCA's Annual Campaign, a downtown shop giveaway and more.
Do you have any plans for Monday, April 8 at around, oh, 3:23pm? Forget work: A solar eclipse is coming to upstate New York, and we’re only about two hours away from its path of totality. What’s a path of totality? Why is it a big deal? Those answers and many more, here:
The Basics
A solar eclipse—when the moon passes in front of the sun either totally or partially—will happen in North America on the afternoon of Monday, April 8, 2024.
In the Capital Region, 97-98 percent of the sun will be obscured by the moon. Some areas of New York, including Buffalo and much of the Adirondack Park, will be in the path of totality, meaning that 100 percent of the sun will be obscured for some three minutes.
While solar eclipses occur about twice a year, typically, they only happen in any given location about once every 400 years.
Communities in the Adirondacks are gearing up to welcome an influx of tourists—if you are considering traveling to the path of totality, make your plans now!
In the Capital Region
You can certainly step outside your Saratoga home or office on the afternoon of April 8 and look up to see the partial eclipse, as long as you’re wearing solar viewing glasses (see link below under “eclipse safety”). The entire phenomenon will last close to two-and-a-half hours from the first contact to last.
At the eclipse’s local peak, there will only be a sliver of sun showing. “It's a very interesting and bizarre sight to see because we're used to seeing crescent moons,” says Dr. Charles Martin, senior lecturer in RPI’s Department of Applied Physics and Astronomy. “It's very strange to see the sun doing that sort of thing.”
If you don’t have special viewing glasses, you can create a pinhole camera to view a projection of the moon crossing in front of the sun. Or, you can let nature do the work. “If you stand under a tree that has a bunch of its leaves crisscrossing over each other during a sunny day, light shines its way through the leaves, and you have a bunch of small points of light striking down,” says Dr. Martin. “All those points of light are going to be crescent, because the tree acts as a giant collective pinhole camera, and you get to see these tiny little crescents everywhere on the ground.”
Didn’t we just have a partial eclipse in 2017? During that eclipse, only about 65 percent of the sun was obscured in the Capital Region, meaning the sky didn’t really dim like it will this time around.
In the Path of Totality
If you want the fullest eclipse experience, experts recommend getting yourself into that path of totality. Here’s a map of it:
You can surely drive out to Buffalo, but your closest option is the Adirondacks, where all sorts of eclipse viewing parties are already in the works.
For those interested in the science behind the eclipse, Tupper Lake’s Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory, the Adirondacks’ only public astronomy-based organization, will be hosting a series of guest lectures, a NASA livestream, planetarium visits and family activities from April 5-9. There will even be the opportunity to work as a citizen scientist, assisting with data collection.
Other viewing events are being held at Ausable Chasm, Lake Placid’s Olympic Speed Skating Oval, Titus Mountain, downtown Saranac Lake, The Wild Center, Whiteface Mountain and Paradox Brewery.
The Impact
According to the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST), hotels throughout the entire Adirondack Park are reporting very little room availability for April 7.
The influx of people consists of more than just casual eclipse tourists. “The combination of clear skies, the location of the sky center and its proximity to the center of the path of totality is attracting astrophysicists, professional and amateur astronomers, along with a number of astrophotographers to the community for the celestial event,” says Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory President Seth McGowan. “Tupper Lake is attracting many prominent scientists and professionals who have decided to make our community their ‘home base’ during the eclipse.”
Experts are expecting there to be lots of traffic leading up to and directly following the eclipse, so ROOST and others recommend arriving early and staying late. “I've heard stories from friends that went [to the path of totality] in 2017, and they're like, ‘However long it took you to get there, multiply by three or four to get home,’ says Dr. Martin. “I have a feeling that a lot of people from New York City are going to run straight up I-87.”
Eclipse Safety
While you don’t need solar viewing glasses to view a total eclipse, you do need them in the moments before and after totality, as well as if you’re viewing a partial eclipse. Many organized viewing events will have glasses available, but you can also purchase them ahead of time online. This 10-pack comes with a smartphone photo filter that will turn your phone into a solar imaging capable camera. You can also order glasses directly from the Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory here.
If you’re heading into the Adirondacks with plans to watch the eclipse from atop a mountain, the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) encourages you to reconsider. Hiking in the Adirondacks in the early spring is recommended only for the most experienced hikers with equipment including snowshoes, traction devices, winter clothing and emergency supplies. “Our primary concern is the safety of anyone considering a hike to view the eclipse,” says Michael Barrett, executive director of ADK. “Lingering winter conditions at higher elevations coupled with the unpredictability of early spring weather demand a high level of preparedness and caution.”
Furthermore, ROOST recommends bringing a map, since cell service is sparse in areas of the Adirondack Park and avoiding all bodies of water (even ones that look completely frozen).
What if it’s Cloudy?
“If it's very overcast, you're not going to be able to see anything, even if you're in totality,” says Dr. Martin. “The one downside of being in the northeast is, generally speaking, in early April we tend to get a lot of showers and a lot of clouds and a lot of rain. So there’s definitely a high chance of bummer factor.”
The good news? While total eclipses are exceedingly rare in any given location in the world, you can see them fairly frequently if you’re willing to travel. In 2026, an eclipse will pass through Iceland and Spain. So, if April 8 is cloudy here in upstate New York? Let’s all reconvene in Reykjavík in a couple of years.
—Natalie
Quote of the Week
“Look at Belmont’s concrete stairs and tell me that’s ‘tradition.’ Maybe that’s why they’re tearing it down! Saratoga is different and it’s special.”
—Artist Greg Montgomery on Saratoga Race Course’s historic grandstand
Camp Wars
This week on Seriously Catherine, Palette owner (and mother) Catherine Hover talks about trying to sign her kiddos up for a coveted spot in the Saratoga Springs Rec Center’s uber-popular summer camp, a cutthroat experience she compares to The Hunger Games. Did her little ones get in before it sold out? Click the Instagram link above to find out, and listen to all the latest Seriously Catherine podcast episodes here.
Save the Date
Tickets are now on sale for the Saratoga Lions Club’s April 12 Night at the Brewseum fundraiser—a rip-roaring evening of beer, wine, spirits and food tasting at the Canfield Casino. The festivities start with the VIP session (totally worth it) from 5-6:30pm, followed by two-and-a-half hours of the main event. This event usually sells out; click here to get tickets and for a complete list of participating vendors. Never been before? Check out our Vibe Check stories from 2023 and 2022.
Hockey Hub
At long last, an agreement has been finalized for a new arena that will be constructed at Schenectady’s Mohawk Harbor and will host Union College’s Division 1 men’s and women’s hockey programs beginning in the 2024-26 season. A $50 million project, the arena will hold 2,200 people for ice hockey events, and up to 3,600 for other sporting events, trade shows and conventions. “This shows that when Schenectady stands together nothing can stand in our way,” says David Buicko of the development company Galesi Group. “This is another milestone in this community’s amazing comeback story.”
We’re Puzzled
Want to win a gift card to Impressions of Saratoga? Pick a puzzle piece! The downtown shop is giving out a series of prizes to five lucky customers (you don’t have to buy anything). All you have to do is stop by the store, pick a puzzle piece out of a jar, and if it fits into a nearly completed puzzle on display, you win! Co-owner Maddy Zanetti explains in the Instagram Reel above.
Pie Day
On Monday, the Saratoga Regional YMCA kicked off its Annual Campaign with—what else?—a pie-in-the-face fundraiser. “We had board members and staff ride [stationary bikes] for a half-hour, hour or couple of hours and members or friends or family came and pied them in the face for a $25 donation,” says Mike Miakisz, the Y’s association director of marketing & membership, of the Saratoga branch’s fundraiser. “Board member Ally Meyers rode for a few hours—her whole family was in here pie-ing her in the face. I think they spent a couple hundred dollars just to pie Mom in the face.”
Other similar fundraisers took place at the other four Saratoga Regional YMCA branches, with the Malta branch hosting a pickleball tournament at Legacy Pickleball this weekend. These initiatives not only raised money themselves, but they also spread awareness that the Annual Campaign is happening; the Y is hoping to raise $450,000 to ensure that every community member has access to the Y’s programs and services, regardless of their financial circumstances. You can help them achieve that mission by donating online or at any branch location.
Sign Game Strong
Let’s have a quick moment of appreciation for whoever’s responsible for the signs that have been outside of Bailey’s recently. Seeing pictures of them on Instagram has almost been enough to get me to hop in the car and drive over for a pint in the middle of the work day. You know where I’ll be this weekend.
ICYMI
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