Out-of-this-world event

Photo: CTV

The total eclipse coming in August has regional tourism skyrocketing.

The total eclipse coming in August has regional tourism skyrocketing, with many hotels already booked from southern Kentucky to Nashville.

Clarksville, Tennessee, and Hopkinsville, Kentucky, lie along the direct path of the rare, total solar eclipse set for 1:25 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 21.

Nashville, the largest U.S. city in the eclipse's path, is also getting ready for the event which, at its height, will last a little over two minutes. All of these cities can thank their lucky stars — or at least the sun and moon — as the tourism dollars roll in.

Hotels in Nashville are starting to heavily pre-book.

"As of March 25, we're at 54 per cent occupancy for the night before the eclipse, which is pacing 31 per cent ahead of last year," said Bonna Johnson, spokeswoman for Visit Music City, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. "The eclipse is clearly having an effect on the hotel market, but we still have plenty of rooms left."

And there are plenty of events planned.

Metro Nashville Parks is planning public eclipse viewing at Beaman Park, Bells Bend, Cedar Hill Park, Edwin and Percy Warner, Fort Negley, Peeler Park and Shelby Bottoms.

Nashville viewing events are also planned at Adventure Science Center, Bicentennial Mall, First Tennessee Park (Nashville Sounds baseball), and the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere.

This will be the first coast-to-coast eclipse in 98 years, and the first in the continental U.S. since 1978. The eclipse will move across the nation in a 60-mile-wide path that includes northern middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. For a short time in the middle of the afternoon, the area will plunge into total darkness.

Hopkinsville has the prime spot with two minutes and 40 seconds of total darkness. Clarksville will get two minutes, 17 seconds, and downtown Nashville one minute, 54 seconds. Robertson and Sumner counties may be the best place to be; both will get around two minutes, 30 seconds.