‘The universe is providing the show’: Eclipse watch parties pop up in Western Pa.

While thousands of dedicated solar eclipse watchers are expected to descend on the Erie area Monday to be in the path of totality, Western Pennsylvanians who want to get in on the excitement need not stray far from home.

Plenty of public watch parties are planned across Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, with free protective glasses being handed out to the crowds wanting to share the experience.

Matthew Hileman is ready to welcome skygazers to Pittsburgh’s Riverview Park.

Although he’s prepared, he said the success of the event depends on Mother Nature.

“It’s a celestial event. It’s not our event,” said Hileman, director of operations and visitor engagement with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. “The universe is providing the show. We’re just there to add a human element to it.”

Staff from the conservancy, a nonprofit that serves parks across the city, will set up in front of the Allegheny Observatory in Riverview Park starting at 1 p.m. Monday, handing out a limited supply of eclipse glasses and educating visitors on the natural phenomenon.

Hileman, who started at the conservancy in January, pitched the idea of an eclipse watch party to observatory staff. When he learned that most of them planned to travel to the path of totality to view the eclipse, Hileman and the Pittsburgh Park Rangers took up the reins.

Parts of northwestern Pennsylvania will fall in the eclipse’s path of totality as the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, turning day into night for a few minutes.

There will not be another U.S. eclipse spanning coast to coast until 2045. It takes about 400 to 1,000 years before the path of totality returns to the same spot.

It is hard to predict the number of people who will come out to view the eclipse at the Carnegie Science Center on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, said Amanda Iwaniec, director of theater experiences.

“The last time we had this occur was in 2017, and in 2017 it was a different day, a different time and people were on summer vacation,” Iwaniec said.

The science center is preparing to welcome thousands of people to participate in its eclipse programming, she said.

Visitors can watch a NASA livestream of the eclipse as it travels across the path of totality, watch the film “Astronauts: Ocean to Orbit” in the Rangos Giant Cinema and partake in programming at the Buhl Planetarium.

Barring inclement weather, visitors can view the eclipse outside the science center by the Ohio River. All visitors will be given a pair of eclipse glasses, Iwaniec said, which they will need to wear when looking at the sky between 2 and 4:30 p.m.

The Pittsburgh region will see the moon cover about 97% of the sun, with the peak spectacle expected at 3:17 p.m., she said. Sunlight will dim for a few minutes, but the sky will not go dark.

Natural events such as the eclipse spark long-lasting interest in space and science, Iwaniec said.

“When it comes to the Science Center, our mission is really to create a world that thrives through science and innovation,” she said. “Events like this that are really getting a lot of media buzz and are kind of worldwide, national news, it’s a really great opportunity for us to connect and help make it accessible for all.”

Daniel Vanden Berk, director of the Angelo J. Taiani Planetarium at Saint Vincent College, hopes people take the opportunity to experience the natural phenomenon.

“One of the things that eclipses do is give us a greater appreciation of the world around us,” said Vanden Berk, a physics professor at the Unity college. “It gets people interested in topics in science like the moon and what’s going on up in the sky.”

The Taiani planetarium has hosted a variety of shows in preparation for the eclipse, educating audiences on what they are and how they happen, Vanden Berk said.

Now, all Vanden Berk can do is hope for good weather on Monday. Not only will clear skies draw more people outdoors, but they also will provide a better view of the eclipse, he said.

Visitors can view the eclipse between 2 and 4:30 p.m. outside the planetarium or through the glass panels in the atrium of the college’s Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion. No registration is required.

Saint Vincent physics professors will be present to answer visitors’ questions, Vanden Berk said. The planetarium’s telescopes also will be available for use during the eclipse, covered in special filters to protect the viewer’s eyes.

The telescopes will show a higher level of detail than can be seen through eclipse glasses, Vanden Berk said, including sun spots, which are storms of hot gas on the surface of the sun.

“With the telescopes, you’ll be able to see much larger, clearer images of the sun,” he said. “With the eclipse glasses, you’ll see a nice round circle, but it’ll be pretty tiny.”

Whether Western Pennsylvania residents choose to travel to the path of totality or view the eclipse from their backyard, Hileman encourages people to step outside Monday as the eclipse passes through.

“It’s probably one of those rare opportunities these days where a lot of people will want to be outside at the same time,” he said.