For several years, Jesse McCormack of Wilton has been planning to make a trip to see the total solar eclipse when the moon will completely cover the sun.

Now Jesse, his 7-year-old daughter Joanie, and his parents, Steven and Penny McCormack of Des Lacs, are on their way to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which is considered home of the “point of greatest eclipse” for the 2017 event. Hopkinsville is located just northwest of Nashville.

“This has been a dream of his,” said Jesse’s mother Penny.

Hopkinsville has been preparing for the eclipse event. It even has an “Eclipse Countdown” running on its website with the number of days, seconds and minutes until the eclipse occurs there.

“I had read about this eclipse six or seven years ago and thought it would be interesting to see,” said Jesse. “We don’t get them too often. I think the last one in North Dakota was in ’79 and I was a year old.”

He said Hopkinsville is to be the site of the total state of the eclipse with the moon directly over the sun for the longest amount of time – about 2 1/2 minutes or so. In other parts of the country, he said it won’t last quite as long. He said the total time from when the moon starts to cover the sun, covers the sun and then moves off the sun will be about 3 hours.

The Kentucky city of about 31,000 people is planning a big eclipse celebration today through Sunday before the sun disappears – for 2 minutes and 40 seconds there – at 1:24:41 p.m. CT on Monday, Aug. 21.

Jesse has always been interested in science and space. He said his daughter has always had an interest in space and planets.

In 1979 when an eclipse occurred, Jesse’s dad, Steven, was teaching at St. Leo’s in Minot. He brought his welding mask to school so the kids could watch the event. Any eyewear used for viewing must be of certain gauge or ISO.

Paula Burckhard told the Minot Daily News she remembers the solar eclipse in 1979.

“I was in the ninth grade at Central Campus and was due to get my braces adjusted. My appointment was actually during the time of the eclipse, so I had to wear special glasses to walk over to my appointment at Dr. Stordahl’s office. How can the ’79 eclipse be 38 years ago!” she said.

The McCormack family is looking forward to Monday’s big event.

Joanie will miss her first day of school due to the trip to see the eclipse but her dad said it will be a good experience for her. She will be a second grader in Wilton.

In the meantime Jesse has been watching the weather maps for the weather forecasted for Hopkinsville on Monday when the rare eclipse show occurs.

The path, where the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun’s tenuous atmosphere – the corona – can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Those outside the path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun’s disk, according to NASA information.

The McCormacks have along with them some welding masks with the appropriate gauge and eclipse glasses meeting the safety standard for such viewing.

Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse (“totality”), when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality, according to NASA.

For more information about how to view the 2017 solar eclipse safely visit the NASA website at eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety or the American Astronomical Society’s website at https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety. The sites also give alternate methods to view the eclipse.

“It should be fun,” said Jesse of the upcoming eclipse experience. “It’s something you don’t see every day.”