The moon is about to go dancing with the star in an incredible display of celestial choreography, the moon will step gently in front of the sun and completely block it from view. Day will turn to night in the first total eclipse of the sun in the continental u. S. In 38 years. You will not want to miss it. There will be another one until 2024, the zone of totality. Youll be hearing that word a lot stretches coast to coast across 14 states from oregon to South Carolina. Within that 70mile wide band the eclipse will be total. Total anywhere from two to two and a half minutes. Other parts of the country will see a partial eclipse, the moon will block anywhere from 5090 of the sun. Well be following the total eclipse in realtime as it progress across the country, west to east. Oregon will see it first in just a few minutes. At 16 past the hour we have correspondents there and in other kilo occasion across the zone of totality they are totally into it. Were on the campus of the university of Southern Illinois in carbondale. That city will experience the longest period, well almost the longest period of totality of any police in the country. Two minutes and 38 seconds. Some ha place will get a little longer a couple of second but this is about the longest view youre going to get. As i mentioned it all begins in oregon where the eclipse first touches the United States. Jamie yuccas to to in madras, totality begins at 19 minutes past the hour. Reporter a you can see people are getting so into it thats because about 9 06 local time, the eclipse started. We right now if i put my eclipse glasses on can see that the sun currently looks like a Crescent Moon at this point. It is getting really cool not just in terms of the science of it but literally is feeling much cooler this morning as the moon starts eclipsing the sun. Its been fun to watch the reaction, so many families came to madras with their children. They wanted them to be able to experience this. Madras, oregons town of 6200 people but as you can see at this camp site this is named solar town, nearly 20,000 people. Whats happening, that people have gotten out of their campsites right now they are moving to this giant field. Theyre putting on their eclipse glass, they have their cameras, telescopes, they moved over into the field and are see excited to finally see the sunny clipsed by the moon in totality. Of course oregon is the first 126 states that will see it. The moon is currently 238,000 miles away. The shadow is moving east at 2,237 miles an hour. I think that is one thing thats been surprising to a lot of people is how quickly this is happening. Weve been talking about it for days. Weve seen the traffic build up, the campsites get packed, hotel rooms have been booked up by scientists more than two years ago when they found out that the totality eclipse would be happening here in madras, oregon. One of the reasons it was picked, this spot, so many people ended up booking here is because of the clear skies. One unfortunate part thats happening you can see a little bit of haze on mt. Jefferson, because theres so many wildfires burning in the area. The skies themselves have not been disappointing, weve had a perfect shot of the sun and moon so far of course, as you said we will see the total eclipse at 10 19. Were about 10 05 your local time we got just about 14 minutes left to go. Id love to keep talking so we can bring it to you live but for now ill toss it back to you. Mason thanks, jamie. You were looking before at a live picture of the eclipse as it unfolds. For look how the eclipse will unfold exactly how likely you are to see it we turn to lonny quinn, chief wester caster in new york wcbstv. Here we go. Only minutes away from this whole thing getting underway. We all know that the earth revolves around the sun. We know to the moon revolves around the earth. What you may not know twice a year they fall into alignment. When this happens you get some kind of an eclipse, either Lunar Eclipse or Solar Eclipse. The big show is the total Solar Eclipse. Thats what were going to see in portions of the country this little tiny moon can block out all the light from this enormous sun. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon. Only possible because the moon is 400 times closer to the earth. From our perspective when we look up at the sky the sun and moon they look like theyre about the same size. When that sun cast shadow on the earth you get two types of shadows. Most of our country will see the partial shadow where youre only going to see some portion visible, if you are on that little line, some of you get to see the umbra where the moon blocks out totally the light from the sun. Its called totality, the path of totality is where it pits. Just outside portland, oregon, all the way to charleston, South Carolina. Now if you are along this path that is where daytime turns to night time. You will actually see stars during the day then it will go back to daytime again. If you are outside of this path, illustrated in grey, 90 of the sun is going to be covered by the moon. Were talking places like seattle, denver, atlanta, if you are outside of this dark area now talking 75 of the sun being covered by the moon for place like San Francisco and philadelphiaf you are to the north of south of those areas, just continue to go down. Everybody in this country will see something but the big, big show is that path of totality. Anthony . Mason of course there all depends on the weather. Whats the weather like in the zone of totality . Ive drawn the zone of totality, you can see it here as it cuts across the continental u. S. That big yellow swath. The path of totality about 70 miles wide, i got to tell you we are sitting under a lucky star, if you will. Because i bet 85 maybe 0 has great weather. Couple of trouble spots out l. One ill zoom in right there, places like kansas city, missouri. You got too much cloud cover right now even that rain chance is out there today. That is going to limit your viewing. You take a look at charleston, South Carolina. Notice inland in South Carolina are doing fine. Along the compost a sea degrees that is sea breeze, you know what that means. That sea breeze gives that you deck of clouds along the coast. But perhaps it will be just off shore, its going to be close, keep an eye on everything. But as i say, as of right now its about 0 thumbs up with really good viewing all across the country. Mason thanks. Now, word of caution, you probably have been hearing it all week its important. Only safeway to look at the sun is through especially approved eclipse glasses like these. Basically it goes completely dark you need it for the eclipse. They have solar filters that block out the dangerous ray, is that could damage your retina. Do not use your regular sunglasses or a telescope, binoculars or camera. Certainly not the naked eye. Only time its safe to look at the sun without the special glasses is when its in total eclipse, blocked by the moon. That is happening only in the total eclipse zone and for very brief period of time. A couple of minutes in most cases. Of course its perfectly safe to watch the eclipse on television. This is really good place to see it. We like you invite you to be part, well post your pictures and videos to our facebook, twitter and instagram feed use the cbseclipse. Joining us now are Michelle Nichols director of public observing in chicago and bill harwood our long time cbs news space consultant, welcome to you both. Couldnt be more exciting day, conditions here in carbondale are fantastic. They are. We were worried about clouds early on, as you look around, just talking a moment ago theyre moving away. They moved fairly quickly anyway f. We get the totality hopefully well get the view weve been waiting for. Mason this is moving hat 2400 miles an hour. Fairly quick. Thankfully that moon shadow is 70 miles wide in this part of the country, you have a little bit of time to be able to check out that total Solar Eclipse. Mason bill, why is this such a huge huge opportunity for scientist . Any time theres a total Solar Eclipse, when the sun is blocked out by the moon you get to see the corona, the outer atmosphere, super heated zone. But dont know how to explain. If you look at the temperature of the visible surface about 2,000 degrees. Move ways off it jumps up over a million degree. With the moon in the way blocking it they can turn their telescopes and cameras down to the surface where the corona gets generated maybe be able to get clues as to what theory might best explain whats driving it. Mason are scientists tracking this across the country . We want to get as much data as possible. Each individual location might get as little as three seconds up to at most 2 41 of data. So, what you want to do is spread everybody out across the country so that you can slice all that data together get up to an hour and half of data. Mason we are starting to experience the eclipse here are we not . Definitely. That little bite taken out of the moon taken out of the sun. I was going to say, lots of people have apps that will show up in the daytime you can watch the eclipse unfolding realtime on your computer on a cell phone, as its progressing how we know its happening even though were under an awning. Mason we mentioned it starts out in oregon, it is well underway, partial eclipse out there lets go back to jamie see whats happening. Everybody has been very complimentary about the city and the happiness within the city and how they have been greeted with openness and friendliness. Its accomplishing everything i would hope. Mason underway there. Theres a good look at it. People are cheering. This is 70 in terms of eclipses, the ability to see it in the length of time how does this compare . This one is about average. You can only have up to 7 29 where totality or as little at just a few seconds. This one is about average for what we get for total. Mason whats unusual it goes all the way across the country. First time since 1918 coast to coast Solar Eclipse. Thats ha big deal. Mason nasa is tracking that, one reason were here nasa is also here what is nasa up to . They have got people, scientists observers spread around the totality. They have jets flying, same altitude, 50,000 feet. Different instruments to study the sun at different wave lengths and television now streaming on the web of at least ten different sites along the pa of totality including the folks mind us. They have a major telescope here, solar telescope here that is streaming live views of the sun in multiple wave length to show it, that orange light that you see, white lights, other frequencies. They are really going out of their way to share this with the public as well as collect scientific data. Mason big show is coming up soon. Total eclipse in madras, oregon, just minutes away. We will take you there when we cbs News Coverage of the eclipse of 2017 continues and well keep an image of the eclipse on the screen through all of our commercial breaks. We come into this world needing others. Then we are told its braver to go it alone. That independence is the way to accomplish. But there is another way to live. A way that sees the only path to fulfillment is through others. That our time here can be deep beyond measure. No one who chose interdependence ever found despair. Because what the world taught as weakness, is in fact our greatest virtue. Ltry align probiotic. N your digestive system . For a nonstop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. Get 24 7 digestive support, with align. The 1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. Now in kids chewables. Mason welcome back to cbs News Coverage of the Solar Eclipse of 2017. Were going to be joined here by derek pitts from the Franklin Institute in philadelphia as we look, continue to look at a live coverage, live picture. Derek pitts is the chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute in philadelphia but he is in st. Josephs, missouri, can you hear me . Yes, i can. Mason tell me what are you looking forward to and where are you in st. Joseph . Im in st. Joseph this happens to be one of the location along the eclipse path where we have nearly maximum amount of time in totality. If i go down the path few hundred miles i can get up to 2 40 but right here in st. Joseph this is a great location for this because of the access and because we had this great open location to observe from. Mason this is always an exciting experience, but what pick are you excited about this year . What im particularly excited about, really two things. Any time i get to stand in the shadow of the moon, thats a great thing because eclipses, while not necessarily rare, you have to travel all across the world to catch up with them. But the thing that really gets me about this particular eclipse is that so many people across the nation will be able to experience this one way or the other. Theyre going to be out viewing this live in some locations right along the eclipse path. Others who arent along the eclipse path they are going to share this on social media and hundreds of millions of people will get to share not only their experience about the eclipse but also their emotions about the eclipse. Not to mention the fact that scientists will be table gather so much data that will help them better understand more about how the sun works. Mason were about to reach a total eclipse in madras, oregon. As you can see right there, jamie yuccas is watching it. Whats hatching . Anthony, i cant look away, i know were about two minutes from totality everyone here just started cheering and clapping its a very primal moment many people are saying. The mayor of madras, this town is usually 6200 people it ex loaded to around 100,000 so people could go ahead watch the eclipse. Thank you so much for being with us, i want to keep the glass on. Describe how youre feeling right now . First of all the testimony tour got cool you have all these people watching. Im so excited. That is the thing that weve been planning for for three years. To have everybody here and everything running smoothly and people enjoying it, its really worth it. E. Reporter lets put our glasses on and take a look up at the sky because we are Just Moments Away from totality. Of course, oregon is the first of 12 states you can hear the crowd starting to react. Which has about 20,000 people in it. Youve heard couple years ago scientist were booking hotels, about 325 hotel rooms were booked up, then how did you start the planning . The first thing we started planning was for safety. When we finally realized that we were going to have this event happen, we did some research to see how many people are following the eclipses. It was a lot. It was a plot. We started planning then, we planned for safety and thats where we started our structure of our plan. Making sure we had all the amenities and people would be safe. And comfortable. Reporter you described a few moments ago starting to enter totality. This is a very primal event were starting to hear people cheer and scream we are Just Moments Away from the he clips happening in totality. How are you feeling . Im anxious right now . I am, too. Its getting smaller and small smaller. Pretty soon, the crowd is just amazing. Wow they keep saying they dont know how youre going to react. I can tell you this crowd is very, very excited. Anthony, this is just intense to watch. Were in dark now take off my glasses my goodness. Look at that halo mason you disappeared on television. Jamie with the eclipse. Spectacular its even more beautiful than i thought it would be. This is spectacular. I dont think we have never experienced this before. Never. You have about two minutes here in oregon from start to finish because we are tilted further away from the moon here in oregon than you guys are in carbondale. You guys get about 37 extra seconds than we do here. In madras, oregon. I have to tell you the city, the reason the city was picked was because it was going to have clear skies, this is absolutely incredible. If you look around its like a beautiful sunset. You can see mt. Jefferson behind me and some of the orcas cade mountains in a smokey haze they have wildfires returning, but it is beautiful. People are ooohing and awwing you can hear their reactions here, anthony. [ cheering and applause ] isnt that great . Mason wow. Reporter its spectacular. Im sure you heard as well people describe if they have seen it before just how everyone reacts in a different way. I was feeling so anxious like the mayor was just to see this happen. Now to take it in, its just breathtaking. Mason even on television. It really is. Reporter the cheers, we have talked earlier, he was planning to start crying because she felt that this is such an emotional experience. I think to be in a place like this everybody is excited about this. It looks like we have a little bit of i should probably put my glasses on. [ cheering and applause ] mason here it comes. Almost 100,000 people descended on this town. Its madras, oregon, usually population of 6200. The traffic, lines in the Grocery Store this is well worth all that have for sure. What do you think . Thats the payoff. I am so excited. You notice its getting lighter out. And warmer. It was very odd as we were leading up to the eclipse itself i will tell you as you guys go to experience it you start feeling a temperature drop. They talk about that little bit of breeze. We saw some birds start flying around. Almost looks like twilight. Its an incredible experience i cant wait for the rest of the country to have that experience. Its now moving at 2,237 miles an hour so good luck to you. Mason jamie, thank you. Bill harwood, this never gets old. How many have you seen . This is number one of the total eclipse im thrilled to death to watch that video from madras it gives us, what were going to see here in just a few minutes. The moon is about im guessing 2025 over the sun here in carbondale. Looking at that corona come out, the outer edge of the moon, it doesnt get more spectacular. Mason the reemergence of the sun is just as dramatic. So strike to be see it now, hear everybody getting excited and cheering to remember that it wasnt that long ago that this used to terrify people when it happened. Absolutely right. All kind of incidents in history where battles were being fought then everybody stopped fighting there was an eclipse, walk away. You know, its been said, not that eclipses are totally rare what is making this one so totally rifting is social media, the connectivity to share t