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Science

UnrepentantLiberal

(11,700 posts) Fri Aug 31, 2012, 01:54 PM Aug 2012

Small Ky. Town Focus Of Eclipse Chasers

August 31, 2012
The Associated Press

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — This southwestern Kentucky town has hit the astronomical jackpot.

When a total eclipse of the sun darkens skies on Aug. 21, 2017, the show will last longer in a stretch of bucolic hill country near Hopkinsville than any place on the planet. It will last two minutes and 40 seconds, not much longer than the Kentucky Derby.

But already this town of 32,000 near the Tennessee border is making preparations to cash in on the fortuitous celestial alignment. And like the Derby, run three hours away in Louisville, the eclipse itself will be a blip in time compared to the buildup.

"We will be the Mecca of the solar eclipse because we are the dead center," said Cheryl Cook, executive director of the Hopkinsville-Christian County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

More: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?device=iphone&storyId=160364987

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