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The pop culture fanatic’s guide to the eclipse in Las Vegas

Updated August 19, 2017 - 5:05 pm

Thank the stars — or, more precisely, the sun, moon and Earth — for giving us a reason to turn the start of just another workweek into an excuse to party.

A total solar eclipse will traverse a broad swath of the U.S. Monday morning, creating excitement not only among science geeks but also music fans, foodies, earthbound dreamers and — of course — retailers seeking to make a few bucks off of a cool cosmic celebration.

A few hundred miles north of Las Vegas, those in the eclipse’s path of totality will see the moon align with the sun and appear to block it completely (an event no scientist would ever describe as a “Full Moonie” (sorry). Southern Nevadans, however, will only see up to 72 percent of the sun obscured between 9:09 and 11:53 a.m. (Maximum coverage is expected here at 10:27 a.m.).

via GIPHY

Even though this may not be prime eclipse-watching territory, terrestrials here remain as fascinated by it as Earthlings have been for centuries. Here are some ways solar eclipses have been feared, revered, memorialized in song and on film, and turned into commercial endeavors.

The mythical eclipse

Science explains how eclipses work. But for our less cosmically conscious ancestors, eclipses were bizarre and terrifying things.

“People who watched the sky knew what was going to happen,” says Andrew Kerr, planetarium director at the College of Southern Nevada, “and they could use those events to manipulate others (by saying things like): ‘The great dragon is going to devour the sun and only I have the power to ask him to let us have it back.’”

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Heightening the mystical effect of total solar eclipses is the physical strangeness that often accompanies them. “It will get noticeably darker and the temperature will probably drop a few degrees,” Kerr says. “Shadows look a little funky. Animals kind of stop. A lot of people describe it as everything getting still for a couple of minutes and then it’s like sunrise again.”

The musical eclipse

Speaking of bizarre and terrifying, it’s a well-known scientific fact (OK, it’s not) that hearing the word “eclipse” is always followed by three days trying to forcefully rid the refrain from Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 seven-minute-long hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” from one’s brain. According to the song’s video, it’s about a female headmaster in a boy’s prep school and a kid with glowy eyes and … oh, who knows?

However, the light/dark dichotomy and general drama of eclipses have moved other songwriters, too. In “You’re So Vain,” Carly Simon sings about a conceited poseur who “flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun.” Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” ends with, appropriately, a song called “Eclipse” (“ … everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon”). And it’s no stretch to imagine that Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam had an eclipse chasing him when he wrote about being followed by a “Moonshadow.”

As proof that a polka can be made out of anything, somebody somewhere surely will be sliding across the floor Monday to the absolutely real “Eclipse Polka.”

The entertaining eclipse

• An eclipse is key to the plot of the 1985 Matthew Broderick film “Ladyhawke,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a woman cursed to be a hawk by day (set against a cliched ’80s score that makes “Total Eclipse of the Heart” sound like Beethoven).

• An eclipse also is a key plot point in the 1949 Bing Crosby movie “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” based on Mark Twain’s eclipse-inclusive story (revisited again later in the cartoon “Bugs Bunny in King Arthur’s Court”).

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• Eclipses are mentioned in Stephen King’s “Gerald’s Game” and “Dolores Claiborne,” and DC Comics once featured a villain called Eclipso who became evil when exposed to an eclipse. You wouldn’t think that it’d be difficult to just avoid eclipses, but whatever.

The culinary eclipse

The internet hosts a universe of ideas for eclipse-themed desserts, including a clever collection of cookies by one creative baker replicating each stage of the eclipse. (They look similar to classic black-and-white cookies half-covered with chocolate frosting half vanilla, except the topping is shaped into expanding crescent shapes). However, Jordan Hudson, a cake consultant at Freed’s Bakery in Las Vegas, says she hasn’t fielded even one request for an eclipse cake, although she’s game if you are.

Krispy Kreme is celebrating E-Day with a limited-edition “Eclipse” doughnut (a glazed doughnut enrobed in chocolate). For eclipse watchers seeking more substantial fare, The Foundation Room at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay is serving an eclipse brunch for $40 per person from 9 a.m. to noon Monday. Guests will receive protective eclipse glasses and can drink eclipse-inspired cocktails.

The commercial eclipse

What happens when the wonders of the universe collide with commerce? Lots and lots of special stuff gets made.

Merchants have spent weeks pushing Eclipse 2017 pendants and buttons and T-shirts (“Get Mooned”) and just about any form of eclipse schlock/memorabilia imaginable. Mitsubishi is even using Monday’s eclipse to tout its new Eclipse Cross, which debuts next year.

And, of course, there are eclipse-watching parties. Among them is the Silverton, which is having a celebration from 8 to 11 a.m. for guests to view the eclipse from the fifth floor of the resort’s parking garage.

Those seeking a more existential experience can head to The Lawn at Downtown Summerlin, where The Silver Post will hold a Solar Eclipse Gong Meditation from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The big deal eclipse

Eclipses actually happen regularly, but not over the U.S., which is why this one is getting so much attention, says Andrew Kerr, planetarium director at the College of Southern Nevada. “It’s going to run all the way from the Northwest to the Southeast, across the continental United States.”

The last total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous U.S. (and Canada), was Feb. 26, 1979. The next U.S.-friendly annular solar eclipse (when the sun appears only partially covered by the moon) will occur Oct. 14, 2023, and the next U.S.-friendly total solar eclipse happens April 8, 2024. Pencil it in.

The moveable eclipse

Greg McKay, president of the Las Vegas Astronomical Society, plans to watch the eclipse from Idaho, a pilgrimage he began planing in May 2012. Less forward-thinking eclipse fans probably should just stay home.

“Most of the hotels and campsites along that (totality) trajectory have been booked up for months,” AAA Nevada spokesman Mike Blasky says.

Luckily, Southern Nevadans can see the eclipse at the College of Southern Nevada Planetarium, which is sponsoring a viewing party from 9 a.m. to noon. Eclipse-safe viewing glasses and scopes will be on hand, and screens will livestream totality as it makes its way across the country. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is offering eclipse programming at 9, 10 and 11 a.m.

Contact John Przybys at jprzbys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.

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