(National Park Service / Flickr Creative Commons)

If you've been sleeping on the North American total solar eclipse of 2024, it's time to start paying attention. The big event — on April 8 — is fast approaching and folks who haven't prepared could find themselves left out in the dark.

 The moon covers the sun during a solar eclipse in Piedra del Aguila, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (AP Photo / Natacha Pisarenko)
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The alignment of sun, earth and moon will plunge the city into darkness, and as long as the maddeningly unpredictable Northeast Ohio weather cooperates, people will view a spectacle that lasts just under four minutes but occurs only three times in a 638-year span above the city.

A file photo of previous annular eclipse. (Courtesy of NASA)

On Saturday, Oct. 14, Chicago astronomer Joe Guzman advises Chicagoans to turn their eyes to the skies — but only with proper protection — to witness a partial solar eclipse.

(Owen Humphreys / PA Images/ Getty Images via CNN)

Known as one of the oldest-recorded meteor showers, the Lyrids are expected to produce 10 to 15 meteors per hour for three nights centered around its peak of 8:06 p.m. CST on Saturday, according to EarthSky.

The period of total coverage during the solar eclipse is seen near Hopkinsville, Ky. Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (AP Photo / Mark Humphrey, File)

It’s been less than six years since a total solar eclipse cut across the U.S., from coast to coast. That was on Aug. 21, 2017. The next one is predicted to hit Illinois.

A total lunar eclipse, seen from Joshua Tree National Park in 2015. (Brad Sutton / National Park Service)

Election Day 2022 will kick off with a pre-dawn total lunar eclipse. There won't be another like it until March 2025.

(Dids / Pexels)

For once, the weather cooperated in Chicago. Astronomers at the Adler Planetarium proclaimed: “What a stellar view!”

(Lim Yaw Keong / Pixabay)

If the skies are clear, Chicagoans will have an excellent chance of seeing the eclipse Friday morning, with the best hours for viewing the event being approximately 1:30-4:30 a.m.

“Chicago Tonight” viewer J. Scott Sykora shared this photo of a harvest supermoon eclipse on Sept. 27, 2015.

If the skies over Chicago cooperate over the next 12 hours, the moon will offer a very rare triple feature. 

A rare celestial event Jan. 31 will result in a super blue blood moon, when the moon will past through the Earth's shadow and take on a reddish tint. (NASA)

Wednesday’s “super blue blood moon” marks the convergence of three lunar events, but it will hardly be visible to viewers in Chicago. 

(Elizabeth Brackett / Chicago Tonight)

Thousands of people swarmed to Carbondale to watch the solar eclipse on Monday. And thousands hit the road as soon as the celestial event was over.

(Courtesy Lincoln Park Zoo)

About a dozen different species were under close watch during the event as scientists looked for any changes in behavior. 

Chicagoans from all neighborhoods and walks of life came out of the shadows to fix their appropriately covered eyes on the skies.

The last time a total solar eclipse spanned the continental United States from coast to coast was 99 years ago. Thousands joined in the Adler Planetarium’s celestial celebration to mark the occasion.

Onlookers were treated to a clear view of the solar eclipse in Carbondale. “It was a festival sort of atmosphere,” Amanda Vinicky said. “You literally had a beer tent, carnival rides, and band, a whole lot of very excited people wearing garb for the solar eclipse.”

(Alex Ruppenthal / Chicago Tonight)

Animal behavior experts noticed the biggest change in one particular species during Monday’s eclipse: humans.