Lexington looks to the skies ahead of solar eclipse. Here’s what’s happening in the city

It’s finally here! A total solar eclipse is expected to draw more than 1 million people to Kentucky this week as they travel to prime viewing spots in the western half of the state and to nearby spots like Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

The rare event won’t occur again over the contiguous U.S. until 2044, according to NASA, so you won’t want to miss Monday’s eclipse.

If you’re celebrating at a Lexington watch party, don’t forget to keep your eclipse glasses or viewers on throughout the entire event. Viewed from Lexington, the solar eclipse will appear as a partial one, with the moon covering about 96% of the sun’s face, but that’s still enough to hurt your eyes if you stare at the sun without proper eye protection.

NASA is also warning the public against taking photos of the eclipse with their phones. Be sure to hold up a pair of eclipse glasses to the lens before you snap a selfie, otherwise you could seriously damage your phone.

In Lexington and Central Kentucky, the show is expected to kick off at about 1:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, with the eclipse peaking here around 3:08 p.m. By 4:24 p.m., the eclipse ends.

3:32 p.m.

Emily Mokroz took in the eclipse at the Living Arts & Science Center with her son, Miles Clark. The eclipse popped out of the clouds on a few occasions, creating brief moments of excitement.

“It’s been really fun,” Mokroz said. “It’s kind of exciting to have to wait a little bit and have everyone get excited all around us.”

While the eclipse didn’t live up to full expectations, Mokroz and her son still had a good time participating in the events at the LSAC’s eclipse event, including painting pictures of the sun. “They had a few different things. They had some collages that they were doing and they had some clay suns that they were making,” Mokroz said.

There were few chances to see the eclipse due to the cloud cover but the few times it did pop out generated a lot of excitement. The front lawn was packed with people during the peak time of the eclipse.

3:22 p.m.

Donna Lee, who oversees the visual impairment program at UK, considered driving to Indianapolis to watch the eclipse in the path of totality, but decided against it to due to heavy traffic.

She said the Indianapolis Motor Speedway held an event using “refreshable braille and sound displays” so visually impaired viewers could the full experience. Sadly, the overcast weather in Lexington dampened her fun.

“We caught a little glimpse of the crescent … and then the cloud covered it again. So we’re hoping we can see it more,” she said.

Lee joked the cloud obstructed view of the sun may be better to keep students’ eyes safe. UK passed out defective eclipse glasses at the library prior to the eclipse, and warned students not to use them over the weekend. Lee expressed concerns for students who didnt realize they had picked up defective glasses.

“I just am really hoping all of the students who received them actually saw the alerts about it. Coming from somebody who works in visual impairment, I don’t need additional consumers,” she said.

Meanwhile, at a watch party at Ethereal Brewery, viewers raised their glasses to the skies to catch a view.

Taproom manager Kelley Jackson was a bartender at Ethereal during the eclipse in 2017. It was one of her first memories as a bartender there. She recalls a small turnout at the time, and sitting outside with the patrons to watch. Over the years, her regulars have reminisced on the 2017 eclipse, and they long discussed having an event to hold this year. Jackson ordered 60 eclipse viewing glasses, and was soon out. She was very surprised at the turnout, but really excited that such a rare event people would remember witnessing at Ethereal.

3:08 p.m.

At the peak of the solar eclipse here in Lexington, viewers fought get a view of the sun through cloudy skies and sent up excited shouts when they managed to catch a glimpse.

2:58 p.m.

Leslie Sanchez and her two sons — Joey, 7 and-a-half; and Judah, 5 — were at the Living Arts & Science Center for the solar eclipse. They ordered their eclipse glasses a month ago and were excited for it to happen.

“We love science and we love learning,” Sanchez said on why they decided to take in the event at the Living Arts & Science Center. “I try to grab any educational opportunity that we can.”

Along with the solar eclipse, the LSAC also hosted many activities throughout the day, including an animal meet & greet. They got to meet a bearded dragon, a box turtle and a coral snake.

“They got to pet each of them with two fingers and they loved all of it,” Sanchez said.

2:45 p.m.

At the University of Kentucky, more than 150 people gathered in the Alumni Commons to view the eclipse. The Department of Physics and Astronomy held a viewing party, with solar telescopes and eclipse glasses. Though it was cloudy, groups were still excited at the chance to see the eclipse at near totality.

Erica Lengyel, a graduate student who helped organize the viewing party, said Monday’s eclipse was the closest to totality she’d been. Lengyel was excited to see people interested in astronomy and viewing the eclipse.

“I credit like a lot of my early science experiences with what brought me here (to UK) today, so it’s nice to be able to give that back to the community,” Lengyel said.

“It’s one of those things that like doesn’t happen all the time, so it’s nice to get kind of one of these life experiences,” Lengyel said.

Also at UK, Lexington resident Vivian C. Wright came to to view the eclipse through the university’s solar telescope, which lets users see the eclipse safely without using eclipse glasses, but the weather wasn’t keen for eclipse viewing.

“The weather is hampering everybody’s enjoyment,” she said.

Wright recalled watching the 2017 solar eclipse with a home made cardboard viewing box. She brought the contraption with her today, but couldn’t seem to remember how to use it and opted for the eclipse glasses passed out by the department of physics and astronomy.

2:35 p.m. - The moon has taken a noticeable bite out of the sun during Monday’s solar eclipse. In Lexington, viewers at the city’s Living Arts and Science Center took in the view amid cloudy skies. Dozens of spectators gathered on the center’s lawn waiting for the sun to peek out from the clouds.

At Ethereal Brewing in Lexington’s Distillery District, guests at a watch party there were drawn to the event by the promise of glasses. Haily Sloan said she was one of the last few to get a pair of eclipse-safe glasses before they sold out. Sloan said she has always been interested in science, and was attracted to viewing the phenomenon because it isn’t something that happens very often. She said she watched the previous eclipse event in 2017, when she was in school at Morehead State.

Check back later for more live local updates brought to you by Herald-Leader reporters Christopher Leach, Monica Kast, Taylor Six and Kendall Staton.