Now those people, with Menz at the helm, will get to experience firsthand one of the most unique celestial phenomena.

The group plans to set up on a cattle ranch between Chester and Ava, Ill., keeping the location private due to space restrictions. Group members and family will come, leading basic eclipse education sessions, pointing out the various happenings the eclipse causes and setting up a scale model of the event. According to Menz, if the sun were the size of a basketball, then the Earth and moon would be just pinheads 94 feet away.

James Small, president of the St. Louis Astronomical Society, shares Menz’s excitement for the upcoming event, even if his organization lacks a similar plan for observance.

“People keep asking me ‘Where are you gonna be?’” Small says. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen the weather report yet.’”

The St. Louis Astronomical Society decided two years ago that it wouldn’t host an event of their own so as not to interfere with any preferred plans its members may have. “They have the flexibility to go where they need to go,” Small says. Meanwhile, the society has been busy helping to plan eclipse events for other organizations as a founder of the St. Louis Eclipse Task Force.