Monday, April 8, 2024 • 11 AM to 4:30 PM
at the Geauga County Fairgrounds
Free Admission
(Sorry, No Dogs or Drones)
#greatgeaugaeclipse & #ShowUsYourSpecs
Video: One Year Away! What to Know
Available Sponsorships • Food Vendor Application
All hands are on deck in preparation for the total solar eclipse on April 8! Click here for a comprehensive website created by the Geauga County Department of Emergency Services featuring our event layout, traffic patterns you’ll use to get there and home (recommendation: “come early and stay late!”), recent local news , details on two other free eclipse-viewing events in our county, and more. Stock up on your eclipse knowledge to be prepared and “in the know”!
Are you ready for the eclipse?! For a great way to watch it, mark your calendars for our large-scale viewing experience to be hosted at the Geauga County Fairgrounds. Three hours of pre-eclipse activities will last from 11 AM to 2 PM, followed by viewing of the eclipse with provided eclipse glasses for safety (while supplies last — then we share), noting that the most exciting viewing will arrive at 3:15 PM when we’ll achieve three minutes 27 seconds of total darkness in the middle of the day!
Scroll down for a complete schedule of events including a Pop-up Eclipse Shop with exclusive event-only eclipse merch, multiple viewing stations with a variety of equipment such as sun-projecting telescopes, ongoing citizen science projects, several photo ops and a host of other unique eclipse-themed activities.
Food trucks onsite will include Manna Food Truck, Scootie’s Outlaw Grill, PaPa Dogs, Scott’s Fire & Ice Catering, Hunger Squad, The Bus Stop, Java on Wheels and King Kone…or bring picnic or lawn chairs and make a day of it! (Bleacher seating will also be available.)
10:30 AM: PARKING LOTS OPEN
While supplies last, get your free eclipse glasses at any of the three open entry gates: 1, 4 and 9! Glasses will be distributed one per person; hands will be stamped for those who receive them.
11:00 AM: PRE-ECLIPSE ACTIVITIES BEGIN
Indoor crafts & activities until 2 PM:
- Eclipse model craft station
- Eclipse projector craft station
- Sun viewer mask craft
- Paper sun/moon craft
- NASA TV viewing station, showing eclipse moving across the United States
- Pop-up eclipse Nature store
- Photo booth
Outdoor crafts & activities until 4:30 pm:
- Chickens provided by Geauga County 4-H families…will they go to roost when it gets dark? What’s your theory? See this citizen science project in action!
- Solar snapshot station
- Shadow bands
- Moon orbit model
- Temperature recordings, locally & globally
- Tactile eclipse materials
- Spider & Nature table
- Eclipse history sign walk around the track
- Photo scavenger hunt
- Announcer
- Countdown clock
Safe eclipse-viewing opportunities until 4:30 PM:
- Sun-projecting telescopes
- User-steered telescopes
- Lens activity station
- Mirror projector
- Snapshot telescope
- Binocular station
- Welder’s helmet
2:00 PM: PARTIAL ECLIPSE BEGINS
3:15 PM: TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE (3 minutes 27 seconds of darkness!)
4:30 PM: PARTIAL ECLIPSE ENDS
Within a mile walk of the fairgrounds, visitors can also find Burton Public Library, Burton Log Cabin, Century Village (all with public restrooms), as well as a variety of Burton Square restaurants and shops. Looking back, three of the last four April 8s would have been perfect weather for viewing such an event…just sayin’.
Wish to instead visit a Geauga Park District park to view the eclipse? Go right ahead! While our staff will be busy hosting activities at the fairgrounds, your 28 parks (including Observatory Park) will remain open for casual visitation as usual.
Whatever the weather, it will be an awesome day in Northeast Ohio. We look forward to seeing you!
The following sponsors are making this once-in-a-lifetime event more special with their partnership. Thank you!
and in-kind donor Dumpster Bandit