There's plenty to love about a cosmic event like today's eclipse, but keep in mind a couple safety precautions for your family and your pets:

As many as 31 million people live within the path of totality, which stretches in a diagonal line from Mexico, through Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, New York and Maine. 

Newton Chu and his family traveled to Indianapolis to view the spectacle from Hawaii — their third eclipse sighting since 1991. 

“I think it is a little emotional,” he said, noting that there are people often seen with tears in their eyes over witnessing “a phenomena of nature.”

Along the path, police expect highway gridlocks. 

“We were told to compare it to 30 Super Bowls letting out at the same time,” Pennsylvania State Troop Capt. Kirk Reese said. “Don’t stop on the highway to view the eclipse. Don’t stop in the roadway. Turn your headlights on. Be safe.” 

HOULTON, Maine — Everybody's ready, even George Washington.

After a weekend of festivities — science demonstrations, movies and gatherings culminating in fireworks Sunday night — this small Maine town in the path of totality will be focused on today's eclipse.

Houlton’s population is just under 5,000. But hundreds of eclipse-chasing tourists have arrived already, and more are expected today. 

In a corner store turned eclipse information center, folks are invited to put a pin on the map representing where they’re from. Most are from New England but there are pins from as far away as California and Washington State. Someone drew on Australia and pinned it.

Locals are excited too. This is the first full eclipse here since 1963. And back then, there were clouds and storms and a lot of disappointment. Today, we may just have the best forecast on the entire path of totality. There are thin clouds now but this afternoon bright sunshine is predicted. 

On the local station WHOU 100.1, the DJs are talking about how this eclipse has brought everyone together and the most noticeable thing is the “loudness of smiles” everywhere. 

“Everybody in this town is gonna be connected… because we’re gonna be eclipse buddies.”

The eclipse is a rare opportunity for scientists to study the Earth, the moon and the sun “in entirely different ways than we usually do,” according to Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator.

One of the agency’s main priorities will be to observe the sun’s outer atmosphere, or the corona, which normally can’t be seen because the star is too bright. During a total solar eclipse, the corona comes into view as faint wisps around a glowing halo when the moon blocks light from the sun’s surface.

“Things are happening with the corona that we don’t fully understand, and the eclipse gives us a unique opportunity to collect data that may give insights into the future of our star,” Melroy said in a news briefing.

Scientists are interested in the corona because it plays a key role in transferring heat and energy into the solar wind, the constant stream of charged particles released from the sun’s outer atmosphere. The solar wind ebbs and flows, occasionally shooting high-powered solar flares into space. These can hit Earth with electromagnetic radiation, which can cause radio blackouts and knock out power grids.

Read the full article here.

Clouds will increase ahead of severe thunderstorms expected across portions of the totality path from Texas to Arkansas today — but the good news is that the storms are expected to erupt after the totality ends. 

There will be high cirrus clouds — which are thin, wispy and transparent — along much of the eclipse path, but these clouds are not enough to totally obscure the view. It’s the mid, low-level clouds that will obscure more of the eclipse. 

NBC News’ meteorologist Michelle Grossman has the latest weather forecast for today’s total eclipse. The East Coast is looking pretty clear, but the Gulf Coast is predicted to have a lot of cloud cover.

Clouds and storms may potentially obscure views of today’s total solar eclipse in states along the path of totality in the southern Plains and the western Gulf Coast.

Around 20 million people in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma are at risk for severe weather at the start of the week, where multiple rounds of storms are forecast to start this afternoon. Very large hail will be the primary threat heading into today, with the threat shifting tomorrow across east Texas and Louisiana. Texas will see the most impact, with major cities including Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio in the path of the storms.

In Dallas, storms are forecast to start between 3 and 4 p.m. CT, after the eclipse is expected around 1:30 p.m. CT. In Kerrville and Junction, the storms could start between 1 and 2 p.m., but they would likely be isolated in nature and only just getting started by that time.

Read the full article here.

DALLAS — For many lifelong Texans, this could be the first total solar eclipse they’ve seen — it’s the first to pass over the state since 1878.

The 2017 total solar eclipse, the last one visible in the U.S., crossed over an arc of states stretching from Oregon to South Carolina. But this time, parts of Texas (and other states, of course) get a chance to be in the shadow.

Totality starts at 1:27 p.m. local time in Eagle Pass, on the border with Mexico. It is expected to begin in Dallas at 1:40 p.m. and end at 1:44 p.m.

Let’s hope the weather cooperates.

In 2017, Debra Ross and her daughter, Ella, drove 14 hours from their home in Rochester, New York, to rural Missouri to see the total solar eclipse.

Today, another total solar eclipse is passing right over their hometown.

Ross and her daughter are part of a community of eclipse chasers, people who travel across the world to experience these cosmic events. After today, the duo will have seen two solar eclipses and they plan to chase many more.

Ross said that her experience during the 2017 eclipse changed her life.

“In the minute and half of totality, I was only aware of four bodies in the entire universe,” she told NBC News. “The sun, the moon, the Earth and me. I got what all the hype was about and came out of that completely transformed.”

Ross, who is the co-chair of the American Astronomical Society’s eclipse task force, has been preparing for the eclipse in Rochester, which falls in the path of totality, for years.

“The excitement is absolutely palpable in Rochester,” she said.