The next Great American Total Solar Eclipse is due to cross the country in April 2024 and millions of people are planning to witness it. On Saturday, September 2, the Delta College Planetarium in Bay City premiered a feature show, “Eclipse: The Sun Revealed,” designed to help the public prepare for the event.

The program runs every Saturday at 3:30pm through March 30, 2024 - except September 23, October 7 and December 30.

On April 8, 2024, the next total solar eclipse will cross the United States. Since viewers in Michigan will see only a partial eclipse of the sun, the show will emphasize the need to travel to the shadow of totality. The path of the moon’s shadow will run through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. The last Great American Eclipse in 2017 was the best to cross the country since 1918, with the shadow of totality coming as close as southern Illinois. The next solar eclipse won’t return until 2045.

“Only a partial eclipse will be visible from Michigan, which is nothing special because everyone in the United States will experience that. The key is getting into the shadow of totality, where the moon covers the entire disk of the sun,” says Mike Murray, astronomer and planetarium manager. “That path will get as close as Indiana and Ohio, so we’ll show you how to make travel plans now.”

The 35-minute full-dome production, followed by a short presentation, features exciting visuals that will explore the cultural views of eclipses, the geometry that gives us different kinds of eclipses, scientific discoveries generated by total solar eclipses, recreations of what can be seen from within the shadow of a total solar eclipse and personal accounts of the experience. 

General admission tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for children 3-18, seniors, students and military, and are available online at tickets.delta.edu/mainstore or onsite.

The Planetarium is located at 100 Center Ave. For show dates, visit www.delta.edu/planetarium or call 989-667-2260.