Where to Find Total Solar Eclipse Events

Are you planning on watching the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017? Where will you watch from?

Some people aren’t able to take the day off work. Some employers have made plans to break for eclipse watching office parties during the big event.

However, if you are off and want to go to an organized event, there are some fun ones planned. As well as some fun places hosting.

Here’s where to find solar eclipse viewing events:

1. NASA’s List of Total Eclipse Events

NASA’s Eclipse 2017 site is phenomenal. It’s Everything Eclipse.

You can find info for eclipse weather, eclipse traffic, and one of my personal faves, their Total Solar Eclipse Interactive Map.

But the other super cool and helpful section is their Event Locations.

You can find specific categories for locating events to attend, depending on how you want to experience the eclipse. With NASA somehow? (There are plenty of NASA affiliated events to choose from.) In a park? As part of a museum function? At a zoo?

See? Lots of options!

Here are all the types of events to choose from:

1. NASA Official Viewing Locations – Join NASA as they view ‘Eclipse 2017’ from the ground and from the air! Use this map to locate each of NASA’s Broadcast Locations, Official Viewing Locations and Airborne Observations.
2. General Events – Instantly connect with local festivals, exhibits, parties, etc. Search for the ones that interest you.
3. Libraries – Choose from their list of registered libraries that will be hosting eclipse events.
4. NASA’s Museum Alliance – Find one of more than 800 NASA Museum Alliance members.
5. NASA’s Space Grant Ballooning Project – The Moon’s shadow during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse from the edge of space.
6. NASA’s Solar System Ambassadors – The Solar System Ambassadors Program (SSA) is a public outreach program designed to work with motivated volunteers across the nation. These volunteers communicate the excitement of NASA’s space exploration missions and recent discoveries to people in their local communities.
7. NASA’s Night Sky Network – The NASA Night Sky Network (NSN) is a consortium of more than 420 astronomy clubs across the US.
8. National Parks – Experience the eclipse from one of our nation’s beautiful parks.
9. Zoos – Watch the eclipse from one of the zoos along the path of totality.
10. Forest Service – The path of totality — or where viewers can see the sun completely eclipsed — draws a line over 26 national forests, one national grassland and one national recreation area managed by the Forest Service. We like to refer to these working lands as America’s backyard.
11. Airports – Airports in the Path of Totality.
12. US Fish and Wildlife Service  – National wildlife refuges in the direct path of the eclipse.

2. GreatAmericanEclipse.com’s List of States

Their listing of events isn’t as extensive as NASA’s, but GreatAmericanEclipse.com does include info about viewing parties for each state in the path of totality. You can find them under the States tab on their menu.

Another fun section on their site is their picks for the Best Places to See the Eclipse.

Even though it doesn’t list events, it does link back to the States page, which, as mentioned above, includes some events on there.

So which cities (and their states) did they pick?

1. Madras, Oregon
2. Snake River Valley, Idaho
3. Casper, Wyoming
4. Sandhills of western Nebraska
5. St. Joseph, Missouri
6. Carbondale, Illinois 
7. Hopkinsville, Kentucky
8. Nashville, Tennessee
9. Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina
10. Columbia, South Carolina