The total eclipse — which occurs when the moon aligns entirely in its orbit between the sun and the Earth — will begin to be visible in Madison at 12:50 p.m. but will be at maximum coverage at 2:05 p.m., said James Lattis, the director of the University of Wisconsin Space Place.
“The basic astronomy of the eclipse is that the moon comes between us and the sun, and blocks part of the disk or all of the disk of the sun,” Lattis explained. “So if you’re at the right place, that path of totality where the alignment is right for the moon to completely cover the disk of the sun, you get the sight of the total eclipse.”