i want to warn people about this. if you looked directly into the sun, you know what would happen? you would get blurry eyes, watery eyes and want to look away. it s the same amount of radiation now but you don t get that blurry, you don t get that tearing. rob: you don t get the warning. for a day or two. a day or two later, you can t see as well, you get blind spots, you get a yellow dot in the center of the vision, that s called solar retinopathy, shows damage to the most important part of the retina that can lead to scarring, bad news. they cannot view this without this. now nasa says, hey, it s safe for the period of time when it s total, if you are in idaho, in south carolina. rob: right on the line. if you are right in the line, the trouble is the eclipse is lasting 2:39 minutes. you know how long it s lasting that it would be safe? rob: perfectly over the sun. 1 minute and 8 seconds.
outside, so bizarre. we ve had eclipses before, jonathan. what s so special about the impact of this one? reporter: what s different about this one is that for one thing solar power is a much bigger player than the last one in 1979. a big enough player that unless companies take action, they re going to notice problems with the power grid. and so what s happening is solar farms along the path of the eclipse will take in less sunlight at a time of year and time of day that air conditioners are running full blast and consuming large amounts of energy, but companies are taking action, they are trying to reduce the impact by the use of smart thermostats. at the push of a button, customers can opt into a power-saving program, they can rev up the air conditioning in the hours and minutes before the eclipse and when the sun goes away, cut down the power
charleston, communities in the path of the eclipse. especially the day of the eclipse, probably traffic slowdowns, but our highway patrol has been working very closely with the local authorities on that to make sure they ve got enough man power to control those. reporter: tomorrow, the moon s shadow will pass directly over 21 national parks in the u.s., the national park service is bringing in extra staff and law enforcement what could be record crowds. cities big and small, hotels are packed. started about a month ago, and rates are about 30% higher than we normally give, which is one of our larger special events in the city of nashville. reporter: so back here live in clemson, 2:37 tomorrow afternoon, that s the magic time when we re going to experience totality. the darkest phase of the eclipse, rob. rob: and it s going to be dark
only that one minute that you can look up there. how many people get that right? and how many people say doc, what do i do now? do not go wild over this. i m okay with the glasses if you can get them. rob: don t put the ray bans on and think you are fine. makes it worse, thousands of times of radiation, don t look through the telescope, that also makes it worse. if you wear these, make sure they are not scratched and are in great shape. i m going to give that you pair. i want this pair, i ve heard they re all sold out. do you see people with vision problems after an eclipse like this? it must happen. seen them before. the last time there was a total eclipse it was in 1979, a cloudy day so people didn t look up. this is the first time since 1918 coast-to-coast in a narrow band and people are going to look up and i m worried about it. i predict a lot of people going
to descend on the continental united states, and it s the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in 99 years. almost 100 years! the path of totality passing from oregon and moving across the country headed to south carolina, people are traveling across the nation to get a better look at this rare phenomena. i know a lot of eclipse enthusiasts are able to get on a cruise or airplane and go to exotic destinations but we re excited because not only do we see the totality from our own country but whole nation gets to share the experience with us. rob: jonathan serrie joins me from clemson south carolina. he s going to have a great view of this. jonathan, what s happening there? reporter: rob, you can see the tent behind me and other preparations under way. clemson university inviting the public free of charge, they re expecting thousands to view the eclipse, but not just big crowds anticipated in clemson, but cities like columbia and