Build Your 2028 Eclipse-Day Plan

What this planner does

The form creates a checklist in this browser from five choices. It does not transmit or save them. The result deliberately avoids naming an unverified field, car park or event; those details require current confirmation from land managers, operators and organisers.

Start with facts that cannot be improvised

Write down latitude, longitude, timezone, first contact, internal contacts where applicable, maximum and eclipse end. Cross-check total-or-partial status. Confirm that the standing point is lawful and its solar direction unobstructed. A map pin establishes neither access nor horizon clearance.

Separate movement from observation

Choose an arrival target and a hard relocation deadline. After it, stay put unless safety requires leaving. Last-minute cloud chasing creates navigation, fatigue and roadside hazards while the Sun changes quickly. Drivers must not watch while moving, and vehicles must not block roads, gates or emergency routes.

Rehearse the human sequence

Assign responsibility for time calls, children, optical equipment and post-totality headcounts. Test viewers for damage, practise covering camera viewfinders, and decide where filters are placed so they can be found immediately. Pack for the full wait and return journey, not only maximum.

The printed result is a starting document. Add official instructions, booking references, medical needs, emergency contacts and warnings shortly before departure. Give each adult a copy and store one offline.

Turn choices into deadlines

Give each decision an owner: coordinate and contact verification, arrival route, equipment check, weather call, final movement deadline, group supervision, and the return journey. “Check later” is not a plan unless later has a date and a source. Keep official road, weather, land-manager and event links beside the decision they support.

Record what would change the plan. A forecast may change the primary site, but it does not make an unbooked reserve legal, remove a fuel constraint, or make a mountain road safe. A completed checklist should contain both a preferred action and a reason not to take the tempting but unsafe alternative.

Check the output before printing

Read the checklist as if another adult had to use it without you. It should name the coordinate, local timezone, contact times, equipment rule, access needs, meeting point, emergency contact, weather evidence, and no-move deadline. If one is unknown, leave it visibly blank and assign the person who must resolve it. The browser tool cannot verify a venue, road, forecast, or permission for you.

Mistakes that undo a good plan

Relying on a single forecast source is the most common failure: agencies disagree, and a plan built on one model has no way to notice when that model is wrong. Cross-check at least two official sources in the final 72 hours. A second common mistake is writing "check closer to the day" instead of a dated action with a named person - that phrase is not a decision, it is a deferred one, and it tends to stay deferred until it is too late to act on.

A third mistake is testing solar viewers for the first time on eclipse morning. Damage, gaps at the frame, or an unfamiliar fit are easier to fix a week ahead than in a moving crowd. A fourth is treating a non-refundable booking as a fixed site: if a forecast turns against it late, decide in advance whether the group observes from the booked location under partial-eclipse rules or forfeits the booking - do not leave that call for the morning itself.

A fifth mistake is skipping the printed copy. A phone can lose signal, charge or be dropped in a crowd; a printed page with the coordinate, contacts, and emergency numbers keeps working regardless. Print one copy per adult, not one for the group.

Frequently asked questions

Found an error? See the correction policy.

What to do with this checklist

Pair it with the weather decision timeline for the 72-hour call, confirm your exact coordinates against the path, and keep eye safety steps in the same document.