ODESSA, Texas — The annular eclipse is on Saturday -- and along with it -- Odessa and Midland are expecting visitors from out of town. Our two large communities join San Angelo, San Antonio and Corpus Christi as the main cities in Texas that are in the direct path with a front row seat for viewing.
Many organizations in the community are getting ready for the excitement and history this weekend. Discover Odessa has been involved in the marketing and planning since early in the year.
We know in Texas that the stars at night are big and bright, but on Saturday, the daytime star will be all the buzz.
"It's an exciting thing, right, to bring people that will see our community," said Monica Tschauner, director of Discover Odessa.
Discover Odessa promotes the city to other communities, and they are seeing the initial economic impact from this opportunity.
“I know that we've spoken to hotels, and we have, already, 163 rooms that have been booked just for this solar eclipse -- spread out with about five or six properties," Tschauner said.
That reality means keeping our community informed.
“We’re just trying to prepare our restaurants; we’re trying to prepare the community just to be aware that there may be an influx of people and obviously several of our larger organizations are having these viewings," Tschauner said.
The Odessa College downtown space is just one of several areas across Odessa and Midland hosting events on Saturday morning to experience the annular eclipse. The event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., which mostly covers the timeline because at around 10:30 a.m. the partial eclipse will begin to emerge, and at around 11:45 a.m. the entire eclipse will be visible.
Safety glasses will be needed to view the eclipse. Discover Odessa will provide them at this event and others, and you can also get them at Lowe's or Home Depot. With safety glasses, you'll be able to look up at the sky and witness something truly unique, and for us here in the Permian Basin, we have the opportunity to be a part of it and to be – not in the spotlight – but rather the darkness.
“We have these NASA representatives showing up at UTPB to launch those balloons, and that’s just not something that happens every day so we’re excited about that," Tschauner said.
With West Texas set to attract viewers, the hope is the economic impact goes beyond just this weekend.
“It is good," Tschauner said. "You’re going to have more people here in Odessa that will be eating in our restaurants [and] spending their money in our retail businesses. We want them to have a great experience. We want them to come back. They felt welcomed, they felt like there was an engaged community -- I mean that's a part of quality of life -- and so yeah, we're excited to have visitors show up and then entertain them and give them a positive experience."
Tschauner noted that Odessa and Midland worked together for the annular eclipse with a digital campaign. The Museum of the Southwest in Midland will also be hosting a viewing as these two cities embrace the economic upside of this rare opportunity.