Doomsday Eclipse Carbondale Illinois August 21, 2017

Are you serious? Be sure to mark the calendar for The Great American Eclipse. A total solar eclipse will take place on Monday, August 21, 2017. There’s something spooky going on in Carbondale, Illinois, aka Little Egypt. Whaaat?

The longest duration of totality will be 2 minutes 41.6 seconds at 37°35′0″N 89°7′0″W in Shawnee National Forest just south of Carbondale, Illinois and the greatest extent will be at 36°58′0″N 87°40′18″W near Cerulean, Kentucky between Hopkinsville and Princeton, Kentucky.

The eclipse will be the first with a path of totality crossing the Pacific coast and Atlantic coast since 1918.

Southern Illinois is also known as “Little Egypt”:

The nicknames for this region also arose from the political tensions prior to and during the American Civil War, as regions of the state allied differently with North and South. Because southern Illinois was settled by southerners, they maintained a sympathy for many issues of their former states. They supported the continuation of slavery. They voted for Democrats, at a time when the northern part of the state supported Republicans. The meaning is expressed in this description of the 1858 campaign of Douglas and Abraham Lincoln:

“In 1858, debating in northern Illinois, Douglas had threatened Lincoln by asserting that he would ‘trot him down to Egypt’ and there challenge him to repeat his antislavery views before a hostile crowd. The audience understood Douglas: overwhelming proslavery sentiment and Democratic unanimity in Egypt had led to the nickname.”

Are you serious? Whaaat?