The Lake Ouachita solar eclipse 2024 will pass over Lake Quachita, Arkansas, in Garland and Montgomery Counties, in central western Arkansas on April 8. Mountain Pine, Arkansas, is the nearest community to Lake Quachita on its far southeastern border. The initial partial eclipse will enter Mountain Pine at 12:31:53 CDT and the final partial will exit at 13:49:13 (1:49:13 p.m.) 

The total eclipse duration will be 3 minutes 55 seconds in Mountain Pine. The eclipse will begin in Lake Quachita’s western end shortly before Mountain Pine time. Kim Williams from Arkansas Tourism reported that two-thirds of Arkansas will be in the path of totality for the 2024 solar eclipse and that all of Arkansas will experience at least a 94 percent eclipse of the sun during the afternoon hours on April 8, 2024. 

The Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism anticipates 1.5 million visitors to Arkansas for this April 2024 eclipse. This means that people planning to view the eclipse in Arkansas need to make reservations for lodging as early as possible. Lake Quachita is rural and there are limited lodging options. 

The largest towns with hotels near Lake Quachita are Hot Springs, with a few hotels and some vacation rental homes, and Hot Springs Village with one hotel. Lake Quachita has 11 campgrounds with over 1,100 camp and RV sites, and there are a few cabin rentals. Luxury and houseboat rentals are available. There are quite a few vacation home rentals around the lake, and you can check Vrbo or Airbnb for availability. 

Arkansas promotes itself as the “Natural State”. The Ozark Mountains and foothills are genuinely natural with gorgeous landscape everywhere. It is one of the most beautiful states with remoteness and serenity only a short drive from anywhere in the state. Lake Quachita is filled with little islands, and you can camp on some of them, surrounded by forested foothills teeming with wildlife, and features amazing clear blue waters.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “A total solar eclipse is not noticeable until the sun is more than 90 percent covered by the moon. At 99 percent coverage, daytime lighting resembles local twilight.” The April 8, 2024, eclipse will be a total solar eclipse. The three types of solar eclipses are partial, annular, and total. 

A partial total eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and earth, but the sun, moon and earth are not perfectly aligned. The sun is not completely covered by the moon’s shadow on earth. An annular solar eclipse happens when the moon appears relatively small in the sky, but does not fully cover the disk of the sun and leaves a thin ring around the rim of the moon, called a "ring of fire" eclipse. 

A total solar eclipse comprises five phases. The first contact, or partial eclipse, is when it looks like the moon took a bite out of the sun. For the first hour and a half after first contact, the sky increasingly darkens. The second contact occurs just a few minutes before the total eclipse. Birds might quiet down, and some animals may change eating and sleeping habits at this point. 

The total eclipse happens when the moon completely covers the sun. The sky darkens more, and you may see a ring of light around the moon, called a “ring of fire” eclipse, which is an annular eclipse. The fourth and fifth contacts appear in reverse of the first and second contacts. A persistent myth exists that total solar eclipses happen once in a lifetime. But, that is not true depending on where on earth you live.

A total solar eclipse in one place may happen once in a lifetime. Every year, somewhere on earth, two to five partial eclipses occur per year. Total eclipses happen about every 18 months somewhere around the globe. The eclipses begin when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. We view eclipses as they travel from west to east. The earth orbits the sun while rotating, and the moon orbits the earth in 27.3 days. 

Humans have been enthralled with eclipses through the ages of time and began recording them in ancient times. Ancient Chinese scribes in Anyang wrote this about eclipses: “The sun has been eaten”. These scribes recorded eclipse dates on tortoise shells and oxen shoulder blades, called oracle bones, in 1226 B.C., 1198 B.C., 1172 B.C., 1163 B.C., and 1161 B.C. In today’s Syria, ancient Babylonians recorded solar eclipse on clay tablets, and their earliest recorded one was on May 3, 1375, B.C.