Parts of the United States will experience a total solar eclipse today — when the moon crosses between the Earth and the sun, briefly blocking out the sun's light. It's the first time in 99 years that a total solar eclipse will travel the entire continental US, from coast to coast.
Only a 70-mile-wide streak of the country, including cities like Nashville, Tennessee, and Kansas City, Missouri, will see the eclipse in its totality. Others will see only a partial eclipse.
The eclipse will look different and start, peak, and end at different times depending on your location.
A tool from the US Naval Observatory can calculate the best time, in Coordinated Universal Time, to watch the eclipse in your town or city — you enter your city, state, and the approximate height from which you plan to view the event. (For example, if you'll watch the eclipse from the roof of a 10-story building, you'd put in 30 meters.)
Below are the approximate start and peak times (in that order) for 10 major cities, some of which will be in the path of totality:
- San Francisco: 9:01 a.m. PT, 10:15 a.m. PT
- Los Angeles: 9:05 a.m. PT, 10:21 a.m. PT
- Portland, Oregon: 9:06 a.m. PT, 10:19 a.m. PT
- Kansas City, Missouri: 11:41 a.m. CT, 1:08 p.m. CT
- Houston: 11:46 a.m. CT, 1:16 p.m. CT
- Chicago: 11:54 a.m. CT, 1:19 p.m. CT
- Nashville, Tennessee: 11:58 a.m. CT, 1:28 p.m. CT
- Greenville, North Carolina: 1:19 p.m. ET, 2:47 p.m. ET
- Philadelphia: 1:21 p.m. ET, 2:44 p.m. ET
- New York: 1:23 p.m. ET, 2:44 p.m. ET
If the Naval Observatory site is down because of an overwhelming amount of traffic, TimeandDate.com also has the same information, though not for every town.
SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about the 2017 solar eclipse
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