 Total solar eclipse, totally awesome opportunity. Go see it if you can. I'm going to give you a few tips for watching the eclipse. Fortunately there are several inexpensive and simple methods with which to view the partial phases of an eclipse. One is to use shade 14 welder's glass. This is very dense filter that just completely blocks out the sun except for one part in 100,000. You can mount it on a sheet of cardboard and protect your face from the sun's rays, put some sunscreen on as well. But this is very safe. You can also buy online solar eclipse glasses. Again, they block 99.999% of the optical light, 100% of the ultraviolet and infrared light. You can also use a projection technique, what's called a pinhole camera. Here I have a bunch of them. Sunlight going through those holes produces an image of the sun. So during the partial phases you'd get a whole bunch of crescent suns. But when the partial phases end in the path of totality, take the filters off, otherwise you'll see nothing. The total eclipse is completely safe without filters, but the partial eclipse must be viewed with filters or with this projection technique. The excitement building up to totality is extreme. So I suggest you go to the bathroom 20 or 30 minutes ahead of time because when totality is approaching and you need to go, you don't want to have to go. You don't want to miss any part of totality. Take one or two quick snapshots for your memory book and believe me, there will be plenty of excellent photos available online. But I've known too many people who spent all their time fiddling around with their camera and when I asked them, did you actually see the eclipse? They said no, and that's really sad. Totality lasts only a couple of minutes, so savor every moment. The diamond ring at the beginning and at the end, that's only a second or two. That's really a fantastic time. Looking at details in the corona, little eruptions from the sun called prominences, all those things to see. The stars come out, the 360 degree twilight sky colors around you. All these things will take up a few seconds each. Try to soak in as much as you can, but don't worry if you don't get it all in a single eclipse. That'll simply provide motivation for you to see another total solar eclipse.