TOLEDO, Ohio — We're just under two weeks away from the total solar eclipse and the University of Toledo is making sure you don't miss out on history by offering free admission into the Glass Bowl between noon and 4 p.m. to view the celestial event.
The university will also offer free parking and free eclipse glasses while supplies last, educational information, music and food trucks.
But the public doesn't have to wait until the day of the eclipse to dive into the science behind it. Outfitted with a state-of-the-art digital projector, special programming at the Ritter Planetarium will explain the geometry and history of the total solar eclipse.
From now until the big day, there will be two eclipse shows a week. Friday shows are for adults and Saturday shows are for children.
The planetarium director, Michael Cushing, said we have waited 100 years for approximately 90 seconds of darkness. He said his goal is to educate and excite the public.
"The last eclipse was 1800s in Toledo and the next one isn't until 2099. So this is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime thing and we hope to get people in so that when they see the eclipse happen, they know why it's happening," Cushing said. "It's the clockwork solar system with the moon moving in front of the sun and blocking it out and they'll know what it is they're seeing when they see the sort of ghostly corona of the sun. It's all about education and inspiration."
He said the event is so rare that watching it without understanding the science is a disservice to yourself.
"Totality is by far the best part of this. The partial eclipses you can see semi-regularly but totality is when the moon completely blocks out the sun and that shadow path across the Earth is only 100 miles wide," Cushing said. "It's a very narrow strip so most places on the Earth it takes 100 years for another path to come across. So most people have probably not seen a total solar eclipse."
The planetarium seats 100 people and there is still time to catch a show or plan your trip to the Glass Bowl to watch the total solar eclipse on April 8.
For more info on watching the eclipse at the Glass Bowl, click HERE.