Eden Prairie residents are on the hunt for Monday’s total solar eclipse

A number of Eden Prairie adventurers have hit the road in search of the best viewing location for the total solar eclipse that happens Monday afternoon in a narrow strip from the southwest to the northeast across the U.S.

Two of them, Senior Pastor Paul Nelson of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie and his wife, Karen, began their journey south on Friday morning.

“We’re going to go down to northwestern Arkansas,” Pastor Nelson said in an on-the-road phone interview with Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN). “And then from there see what direction we need to go, either Russellville or Mountain View. There are a couple of different options for where the sun might be shining the brightest.”

According to NASA, the area near Russellville, Arkansas, will be in totality around 1:50 p.m. CDT Monday.

Advertisement

Eclipse watchers have been closely following weather forecasts along the path, hoping to avoid the cloudy conditions that are expected in many areas.

Eden Prairie will experience about 75% coverage, called the penumbra, which is the outer part of the Moon’s shadow where the sun’s light is only partially blocked. Forecasts predict Monday will be a cloudy, rainy day in the Twin Cities area.

The Nelsons are not new to the hunt for solar eclipses.

“We saw the one in 2017 in Wyoming, which was absolutely amazing,” Pastor Nelson said. “Incredible experience. We started to plan this trip back then.”

The Nelsons are part of a group of people who will make this a camping trip. They agreed to share some of their experiences with EPLN next week, so stay tuned.

The 2024 total solar eclipse will cross North America, starting over the South Pacific Ocean and passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada, according to NASA. Weather permitting, the first location in continental North America to experience totality is Mexico’s Pacific coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT.