Seeing this eclipse is probably the highest-reward, lowest-effort thing one can do in life
Enlarge / The path of totality for the April 8 eclipse. (credit: National Solar Observatory)
If you enter "how to see the eclipse" into your favorite search engine, you're bound to see thousands-millions?-of helpful guides. Some of these are extremely detailed and thorough, almost as if the author were getting paid by the word or augmented by AI.
In reality, seeing a solar eclipse is just about the easiest thing one can do in one's life. Like, it's difficult to think of anything else that has the greatest reward-lowest effort ratio in life. You just need to know a couple of things. For the sake of simplicity, here is Ars' four-step guide to having a four-star eclipse-viewing experience. Steps are listed in order of ascending importance.
Step 1: Identify the path of totality. This is where the total solar eclipse will be visible on April 8. The National Solar Observatory has a good map here. Click on the map to get the exact timing. It's time and place sorted.