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Did you know Christa McAuliffe School of Arts and Sciences is named after an extraordinary astronaut? That’s why we’re jumping up and down over this rare event happening August 21st: a total solar eclipse! You may have seen a partial solar eclipse, or a more common lunar eclipse, but a complete solar eclipse? That is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we are giddy to share it with you! Here’s some information on what to expect.

At the onset of the total eclipse, the afternoon sky will begin to darken rapidly. The wind will pick up and every hair on your body will stand on end as the temperature suddenly drops 10-15 degrees. Night-time insects will begin to croon, and stars and planets will pop into existence against the inky blue sky. (You can imagine the terror this event must have evoked in ancient times!) Once the moon has fully eclipsed the sun, eclipse2017.org says “it will look to you as though someone has painted the sky a deep blue-black, has cut an impossibly-black hole in it with a pair of scissors, and then smeared radiant, glowing, shimmering cotton candy around that hole.” This will be the first total solar eclipse in 38 years!

What makes it different from a partial solar eclipse? The corona. Only during a full solar eclipse does the corona appear, misting around the black hole in the sky in gossamer white tendrils that wave into the air, ethereal as jellyfish tentacles. Solar flares can also appear, rippling through the air in multicolor hues. Red, green, yellow, no one knows what they’ll look like until they’re there, painting psychedelic brushstrokes into the sky.