2024 Solar Eclipse: When To Look Up In Maryland

MARYLAND — After weeks of hype and planning, Monday’s 2024 total solar eclipse, has arrived to dazzle Marylanders. The phenomenon won’t be seen again for two decades.

We’ll see a partial blockage of the sun in Maryland with about 87 percent totality as the moon slips between the sun and Earth, according to a searchable NASA map. (Watch the NASA broadcast live below.)

Here are the eclipse times to keep in mind on Monday (all times local):

• Partial eclipse begins: 2:04 p.m.
• Totality begins: 2:46 p.m.
• Maximum: 3:20 p.m.
• Totality ends: 3:55 p.m.
• Partial ends: 4:32 p.m.

Fifteen states are in the path of totality, which extends from Texas to Maine in the United States.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for mostly clear and sunny skies on Monday with a high of 60 degrees.

What’s Happening Around The Region?

• The Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St. in Baltimore, will host a watch party for the eclipse. The event is free to anyone with paid admission and will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Solar Eclipse Festival on the National Mall: Noon to 4 p.m.
• The Oregon Ridge Nature Center is hosting Astronomy in the Park at 13555 Beaver Dam Road in Cockeysville.
• NASA's Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt is celebrating the partial eclipse with activities at its visitor center from 1 to 3 p.m. Activities will include viewings of the Sun with safe solar glasses, a corona art project, a Sunspotter demonstration, and presentations by solar scientists. Registration is required.
• College Park Aviation Museum is hosting a viewing on its grounds with free eclipse viewing glasses.

Be Sure To Protect Your Eyes

Except during the brief total phase of a total solar eclipse, when the sun’s face is completely obscured by the moon, it is not safe to look directly at the sun without protective eye equipment, according to NASA.

The American Astronomical Society has a list of vendors whose eclipse glasses have been certified as safe. The organization specifically warns against bargain hunting for eclipse glasses from online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay or Temu because counterfeit glasses have infiltrated retail chains. Wherever you acquire protective eyewear, it should meet or exceed the international safety standard of ISO 12312-2:2015.

• Related: You Must Protect Your Eyes, Regardless Of Eclipse Totality: What You Need

Keep this in mind, too: Viewing any part of the bright sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury.

One other safe way to view the eclipse is with a do-it-yourself pinhole projector that shows the sun on a nearby surface. The American Astronomical Society has pinhole projector DIY instructions.