The City of Carbondale's Eclipse Coordinator, Diane Regan, held an open planning meeting in Carbondale recently with City Officials, SIU Officials and local business leaders to outline the plan the city is working on to successfully accommodate the between 50-thousands and potentially 100s of thousands of worldwide visitors to both Carbondale and the southern Illinois region. Regan unveiled a special e-mail to be used for questions about the eclipse. That special e-mail is: info@carbondaleeclipse.com You can also learn more about the first total solar eclipse since 1979 by visiting: http://eclipse.siu.edu/
According to the materials handed out at this planning meeting, the solar eclipse will occur at 1:21 Central Daylight Time on August 21st, 2017. The area of totality will be roughly two miles south of Carbondale and will have a total duration lasting as long as two minutes and 40 seconds.
Diane Regan said that three more planning meetings are planned:
August 9th, 2016 at 6:00PM at the Chamber of Commerce Office located at 131 South Illinois Avenue in Carbondale.
September 13th, 2016 at 6:00PM at the Chamber of Commerce Office located at 131 South Illinois Avenue in Carbondale.
October 18 at 12 Noon at a location to be determined.