Karen Chávez

kchavez@citizen-times.com

BREVARD – By all accounts, Aug. 21 in Western North Carolina is going to be astronomical – for scientists, amateur astronomers and businesses built on tourism.

This will be the day of a total solar eclipse, a rare astronomical event in which the Earth, moon and sun line up so that the moon completely obscures the sun, revealing the sun’s atmosphere, or corona, and plunging places along its path into daytime darkness.

Parts of WNC are uniquely positioned to witness what will be the nation’s first total solar eclipse in 26 years – and the first seen in the contiguous U.S. in 38 years.

It also is the first total eclipse seen exclusively in the U.S. since before the nation's founding in 1776.

For the first time in history, the total solar eclipse will pass over an astronomical research facility with gigantic telescopes – those at the NASA-built Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute – in the Transylvania County town of Rosman, about 30 miles southwest of Asheville.

The eclipse will last for one minute, 47 seconds over PARI, starting at 2:36:44 p.m. Tickets to the research station’s special viewing event are nearly sold out.

The vanishing sun’s path – nicknamed the Great American Solar Eclipse – is expected to skyrocket unprecedented numbers of visitors to the mountains, from international “eclipse chasers” to NASA scientists to summer vacationers and the simply curious.

WNC is one of the handful of places in the world in the zone of totality – a complete obliteration of the sun.

The eclipse will shine – or blacken – favorably upon Graham, Macon, Swain, Jackson and Transylvania counties. The Transylvania Tourism Development Authority has been planning for the celestial phenomenon to make a landing for the past year, alerting businesses, schools and other organizations to gear up, get excited and expect the unexpected.

“We have never encountered anything like this before. Rosman has two traffic lights and one is blinking,” said Clark Lovelace, executive director of Brevard/Transylvania Chamber of Commerce and TDA.

Businesses in Transylvania don’t know what to expect, Lovelace said. Until now the county’s largest event is the annual White Squirrel Festival, which draws 35,000 people over three days in May.

“We are so lucky to have PARI, the only research station in the path of totality in the world,” he said. “I can’t wait to see one of the morning TV stations like ‘Good Morning America’ and the ‘Today Show,’ saying ‘Live from Rosman, North Carolina.’”

Towns across the mountains are buzzing and the word is getting out – even six months ahead of the event.

The Ash Grove Mountain Cabins and Camping on a wooded mountainside halfway between downtown Brevard and DuPont State Forest is booked Aug. 20-22, said co-owner Steven Dugard.

In his 14 years operating the four cabins and 20 campsites, Dugard said he has never seen the lodging fill this far in advance.

“I hadn’t even heard about the eclipse when one of our regular guests from Raleigh contacted us one year ago,” Dugard said. “He rented the whole place for his entire family to come, from all different states.”

The Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 25 miles southwest of Asheville, has sold out more than half of its rooms for eclipse weekend.

Layton Parker, general manager of the 80-bed Hampton Inn in Brevard, said he is “100 percent sure” the hotel will fill up, and quickly. He already has 20 reservations for the Sunday and Monday of the eclipse, and blocks of rooms reserved for scientists coming to PARI.

“We’re also setting rooms aside for the TDA who are preparing for media who will be coming from around the world,” Parker said.

The TDA is balancing many planetary-sized challenges and along with PARI has hired a marketing team to hash out plans among PARI, emergency services, transportation directors, schools and Brevard College. The Brevard Music Center and Gorges State Park will have special solar eclipse events.

The aim is to create special viewing sites, festivals and other events around the eclipse, as well as public safety plans so people are aware of traffic congestion zones, and of the potential to burn their retinas and go blind by looking directly at the sun.

Viewers must wear special eclipse sunglasses.

Chasing the zone of totality

The solar eclipse will enter the United States at 10:19 a.m. PDT on the Pacific Coast at Yaquina Head, Oregon, where the totality phase will last for 1 minute, 58.5 seconds.

It will then scorch a southeasterly path across Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina, then sail over Greenville, S.C., before exiting the country at about 2:49 p.m. EDT on the South Carolina coast, dissipating over the Atlantic Ocean.

The path of totality is about 70 miles wide, said Michael Zeiler, webmaster of GreatAmericanEclipse.com, which contains exhaustive information on the eclipse.

He said those within 10 miles of the center line will experience at least 90 percent of the duration of total eclipse. WNC is the closest site of the eclipse to at least half the U.S. population, he said.

The total solar eclipse will enter North Carolina at 2:33:29 p.m. in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One of the state's most sought-after viewing spots will be atop Clingmans Dome, where the summit sits at 6,643 feet elevation. The park plans a special ticketed event at Clingmans Dome that day. Tickets will go on sale March 1.

Communities within the zone of totality can expect two-10 times the number of visitors as come to their largest events, Zeiler said.

Lovelace, the Brevard/Transylvania Chamber of Commerce & TDA director, knows there will be some logistical challenges, but the solar eclipse is sure to pack a wallop on the local economy.

In 2015 the county, which is 50 percent public recreation land, had 770 employees in the tourism industry and drew $88.86 million in tourism revenue and $16.47 million in jobs.

What is PARI?

Things are such a twitter at the front-and-center Rosman-based research center PARI, it should be called “PARTI” central.

NASA chose the scenic, mountainous spot in the Pisgah National Forest in 1962 to establish the East Coast satellite tracking station during the start of the U.S. space program. In 1998, Don and Jo Cline founded PARI as a nonprofit science foundation to provide hands-on education and research for those in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines.

The eclipse will occur directly over some of the most advanced astronomical equipment in the world: two 26-meter (85-foot) radio telescopes, a 4.6-meter radio telescope and a 12-meter radio telescope, said Steve Saucier, PARI executive director.

“This will give us the opportunity to conduct scientific studies that have never been possible before, another first for this site,” Saucier said.

He said the eclipse couldn’t have better timing for PARI, which has just completed a plan of new initiatives that include capital projects and innovative science education and research, creating new economic opportunities for PARI and the state.

“What we want to create is an environment where science is cool, it’s fun and it’s part of our lives. The master plan is to bring people into the scientific realm in a whole new enlightening and exciting way,” Saucier said.

Scientists will launch a balloon 90,000 feet into the atmosphere to take video and livestream the eclipse.

Some 950-1,000 people are expected, including media and the general public, NASA scientists, 200 amateur astronomers, including 80 from Italy, and 50-100 scientists and researchers. Tickets for the general public will go on sale Feb. 27 at www.pari.edu.

Saucier wants the scientific excitement to spill over into schools and the community.

“We have to realize that science is a way of thinking. We have to get away from asking kids ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ but asking ‘what problems do you want to address, whether it’s health, the economy, the environment?’” Saucier said. “Science is a tool we must embrace, hone, get better at and make it a part of our lives in ways that empower children so they are in control of their economic future.”

He can foresee a sonic boom in science interest and involvement in the close future and eventually jobs at PARI that will replace job losses in manufacturing.

“This is the kind of thing WNC needs, to have its own identity, initiatives, economic development projects to give kids the opportunity to stay in WNC. We’re on the cusp of greatness.”

Greatness to spill across WNC

Transylvania’s neighboring Jackson County is expecting more visitors the week surrounding Aug. 21 than ever before, said Nick Breedlove, director of the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority.

The towns of Sylva, Cullowhee, Dillsboro and Cashiers are bracing for an onslaught of overnight guests.

Breedlove said the county has more than 1,000 beds, but he can conservatively see a doubling of Jackson County’s population of 40,000.

“We want people to not only experience the eclipse but what we have to offer in Jackson County,” Breedlove said. “The TDA just made $9,000 available for two major festivals that weekend in Cashiers and Sylva and we’re setting up several viewing sites.”

Although Asheville will not be in the zone of totality, the city is certain to receive many visitors from the counties that are, said Marla Tambellini, assistant vice president and deputy executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. The office is already fielding eclipse calls.

“We want to make sure we provide not only lodging needs but a lot of other fabulous experiences as part of their visits,” she said.

Lookout Observatory at UNC Asheville is planning a city-wide event, said observatory manager Brian Hart. But it won’t be on campus, since Aug. 21 is also the first day of classes.

He said even though there will only be a 99 percent eclipse in Asheville, the university is working with the city and the Asheville Museum of Science to hold a public viewing somewhere such as Pack Square.

"One of the good things about this particular eclipse it that it’s happening in the middle of the day so the sun will be directly overhead," he said. "People will be able to see a nice clear location right outside their front door.”

The message all towns want to get out to the public is to be safe, plan your viewing site, and get your tickets now.

Of course, all the hype could quickly dissolve with WNC’s fickle weather.

“Our guests understand the chances of bad weather,” said Dugard of Ash Grove Cabins. “If it’s rainy or cloudy, this could all go away.”

Some WNC spots to see the Great American Total Solar Eclipse:

City, start of total solar eclipse (local time), d uration of totality (min:sec),

Great Smoky Mountains National Park 2:33:29 p.m. EDT. Tickets for Clingmans Dome event on sale March 1 at www.recreation.gov.

Murphy 2:34:17 PM EDT 2:28

Robbinsville 2:34:20 PM EDT 2:35

Andrews 2:34:27 PM EDT 2:38

Hayesville 2:34:44 PM EDT 2:33

Bryson City 2:35:12 PM EDT 1:57

Franklin 2:35:26 PM EDT 2:30

Otto 2:35:32 PM EDT 2:37

Cherokee 2:35:40 PM EDT 1:24

Sylva 2:35:50 PM EDT 1:44

Cullowhee 2:35:57 PM EDT 1:54

Sapphire 2:36:24 PM EDT 2:17

Brevard 2:37:22 PM EDT 1:03

Source: Fred Espenak, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov

For more information on total solar eclipse viewing areas and events, visit: