It's a phenomenon that won't happen again in DFW until 2317. The April 8 solar eclipse is less than two weeks away, and it's even got celestial vets like former NASA astronaut Terry Virts excited.
"My only advice is be sure to take some time, go outside, enjoy this," Virts said. "It's going to be 20 years before this happens again in America, so this is the last chance for a long time to see an eclipse."
Virts wanted to let us know he's partnered up with Sonic to promote their Blackout Slush Float. In addition to being a tasty, sweet concoction...it comes with eclipse glasses!
"You do not want to stare at the sun with your eyes," Commander Virts emphasized. "Even normal sunglasses are not good enough, so you need some special eclipse viewing glasses.
"If you have a pair of eclipse glasses, when you put them on, you shouldn't be able to see anything except for the sun. They're very, very dark. They're much darker than normal sunglasses."
Virts is no stranger to solar eclipses, having even had the chance to view one from space during his time at the International Space Station in 2015.
"I was on the ISS and looking off to the North," Commander Virts recalled. "We were flying over the North Atlantic, there was this big dark spot and you could see the moon's shadow down on Earth. It was pretty amazing."
Virts says he'll actually be in Dallas to take in this total solar eclipse from the ground.
"The shadow hits Texas, about 1:30 (on April 8). It'll be in Dallas around 1:40 in the afternoon, and it goes across America through Cleveland and Buffalo and leaves Maine a little over an hour later," Commander Virts details. "So, you can see...the motion of the moon going across the Earth. Nothing is steady in the universe. Everything's moving, and an eclipse really shows you that."
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