Awesome Website Breaks Down Eclipse by Zip Code

Image: PHOTO: This interactive website details just how much of the eclipse you'll see from your own backyard. (photo via Pixabay/artbyrandy)
Image: PHOTO: This interactive website details just how much of the eclipse you'll see from your own backyard. (photo via Pixabay/artbyrandy)
Monica Poling
by Monica Poling
Last updated: 8:22 PM ET, Sun July 30, 2017

Unless you've been hiding in a Wi-Fi-free zone lately, you already know that Americans are in the midst of massive solar eclipse fever.

On August 21, the moon and the sun will traverse an intersecting path across America. While most parts of America will witness a partial eclipse, there's a 70-mile-wide line across the nation, starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina, where people will experience "totality," the point where the moon fully covers the sun.

Experiencing totality, in fact, is quite rare. Rarer still is for it to occur only in North America. This is apparently the first time since our nation's founding where totality has occurred completely within the continental United States.

Which is why travelers are going insane.

Travel companies are responding to the fervor in kind.

Airlines like Southwest are highlighting flights that offer the best eclipse views while Alaska Airlines created the Great American Eclipse charter flight. Amtrak's sponsoring an event in Carbondale, Illinois-the spot where the eclipse will be visible for the longest period of time-while Royal Caribbean's hosting platinum-selling DNCE during a special eclipse-viewing cruise.

While there are no lack of travel opportunities for August 21, if you're planning to make do with eclipse viewing from your back yard, data on what you'll see has been a little harder to get.

Until now.

Vox Media, the parent of such recognized brands as Eater and Curbed, has created an amazingly easy-to-use, interactive graphic to show you how exactly much of the eclipse you can see (and how much you'll be missing) from your home zip code.

Enter zip code 40502, for example, and you'll learn that while people in Lexington, Kentucky won't experience totality, they'll see the moon cover 94.7 percent of the sun at 2:30 p.m. EDT. Folks in the San Diego-neighborhood of La Jolla, on the other hand, will only see peak coverage of 58 percent at 10:22 a.m. PDT.

The animation, which uses data provided by The United States Naval Observatory and NASA, also shows the shape of the sun and moon, the path the moon will take over the sun and an estimated darkness at the time of the eclipse for your selected zip code.

[READMORE]READ MORE: Eclipse Travelers Urged to Confirm Oregon Hotels[/READMORE]

It also details how far you'll have to travel to witness totality. Sorry San Diegans, you're going to have to venture 741 miles to the northeast to catch the full eclipse.

No doubt, if you haven't already caught eclipse fever, this animation is sure to have you calculating just how easy it will be to get a little closer to totality on August 21.


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