All across the country, everyone is googling the same pressing question: What time was the solar eclipse? The answer turns out to be complicated. According to NASA, the solar eclipse started at a different time depending where you were, as the totality made its way across 14 states from coast to coast. Here’s the time the eclipse began at some of the prime viewing locations, courtesy of Newsweek. (All times were local.)
- Madras, Oregon: 10:19 a.m.
- Idaho Falls, Idaho: 11:33 a.m.
- Missoula, Montana 11:31 a.m.
- Casper, Wyoming: 11:42 a.m.
- Lincoln, Nebraska: 1:02 p.m.
- Des Moines, Iowa: 1:08 p.m.
- Topeka, Kansas: 1:08 p.m.
- Jefferson City, Missouri 1:13 p.m.
- Carbondale, Illinois: 1:20 p.m.
- Paducah, Kentucky: 1:22 p.m.
- Nashville, Tennessee: 1:27 p.m.
- Clayton, Georgia: 2:35 p.m.
- Columbia, South Carolina: 2:41 p.m.
Outside of the path of the totality, the partial eclipse began at 1:23 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time in New York City, at 9:06 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time in Los Angeles, 11: 54 a.m. Central Daylight Time in Chicago, and at 1:18 p.m. EDT in the nation’s capital. If your city isn’t included, Vox made an interactive tool that will show you what time the eclipse began wherever you were. Now you know exactly when you needed to have gone outside to have witnessed one of nature’s most awe-inspiring phenomena—just make sure you didn’t stare directly into the sun!
