Small town preparing for "The darkest day" - KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2

Hopkinsville, Ky. — (WAVE) A crowd of roughly 100,000 people is expected to descend on Kentucky in three years when what’s normally a once-in-a-lifetime event takes place: a total solar eclipse. The moon will pass directly in front of the sun, casting a shadow on Earth.

It will all start on the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 off the coast of Seattle, Washington. The shadow path will then work its way to the other side of the contiguous United States into Charleston, South Carolina later that evening. That would make it the longest total solar eclipse path in the United States in 99 years.

One Kentucky town will experience the point of Greatest Eclipse: GPS location 36.9N 87.6W. which is just northwest of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

That also happens to be Mark Cansler’s farm.

“It’s my understanding that you can see the stars,” says Cansler. “That’ll be the neatest thing in my eyes — to be able to see the stars.”