ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — In just six short months to this day, the City of Rochester will be in the path of a truly rare experience — the total solar eclipse in April of 2024.

News 8 sat down with leaders from the Rochester Eclipse Taskforce, to talk about what to expect.

“The next one will not happen here until 2144,” Debra Ross, Chair of Rochester’s Eclipse Taskforce says.

Ross has been planning for the big day for six years. Now we are six months away from the total solar eclipse on April 8 of 2024. She says Rochester will be seeing quite a number of visitors.

“It is going to be exciting,” Ross says. “So exciting in fact, that we are expecting between 375,000 and 500,000 visitors to our area.”

Ross says this is going to be an experience you will not want to miss.

“It will look like a velvet hole in the sky,” she says. “We’ll see the stars come out around the sun. We will around the horizon, 365 degrees like a sunset glow and your world will be forever changed.”

One thing that you’ll want to be sure to have is the appropriate eye protection. Ross says ISO certified eclipse shades are the only way to be able to see the effects of the solar eclipse without damaging eyes.

As a practice run, you may be able to use them for the partial eclipse coming up this week.

“It’s partial here,” Ross says. “So at about 1:13 p.m. on Saturday, October 14, we will see about 25% of the sun covered if you are looking at it through approved solar filters.”

Ross says the Rochester Museum and Science Center is holding an event on Saturday for the partial eclipse. To find those solar filter shades, she adds that you can grab some at RMSC, and make sure to keep them for the big day in April.