By now you have probably heard, on April 8th, 2024 the moon and the sun will do their dance and cast the world into darkness. Sort of. While certain parts of New York State will be in the path of totality (i.e. the most complete darkness), the phenomenon will only last a few minutes.

New York will be in the direct path of totality and there will be some great places to view this magnificent event throughout the state. Sitting just below the path of totality lies Steuben County. Located in the heart of the Finger Lakes, Steuben is home to world-class museums, award-winning wineries and a beautiful lake, Keuka Lake.

“In 1928, the famed astronomer, George Ellery Hale, had a vision. He wanted to build the world’s largest telescope at Palomar Mountain in California—a research instrument that would allow scientists to view the skies as never before.”

Hale enlisted the aid of Corning Glass Works and in 1934 the company attempted creating the world's largest glass mirror at 200 inches (double the largest mirror at the time). During the pouring, a mishap occurred and the attempt was ruined, however Corning’s physicist and engineer decided to let the mold cool anyway turning that failure into an opportunity to experiment in making the world’s largest single piece of glass. After all, how often would anyone get a chance to see how something that enormous handled the annealing process (the gradual cooling necessary to prevent the glass from cracking or breaking)?

Corning successfully made a second mirror which took a year to cool (or anneal) properly before making its way to California.

You can see the “imperfect disk” on display at The Corning Museum of Glass. (One Museum Way, Corning, NY 14830)

So cool!

The Corning Museum of Glass is more than a museum of art and history (we’re talking the world’s largest museum devoted to glass art and artifacts), it’s also a place where you can learn about science thanks to the Innovation Center where you can also learn about the special glass needed to make windows for the space shuttle (glass needed to withstand the extreme heat generated on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere). That same special heat-resistant glass is used today in the museum’s hot glass shop to provide behind-the-scenes views of hot glass in a furnace that’s over 2,100°.

Renowned glass artist, Josh Simpson has a special connection with space which comes through in his remarkable paperweights, including his 100-pound megaplanet which he was commissioned to make by The Corning Museum of Glass as the museum’s 1,000th paperweight. Simpson’s wife is astronaut Cady Coleman who spent time in space and has inspired some of his most stunning work.

Originally inspired by the novels of science fiction master Frederick Pohl, Heechees have become the calling card of Vitrix Hot Glass Studio located on historic Market Street. In Pohl’s iconic novels, Heechees are an advanced fictional race of interstellar travelers who explored Earth’s solar system long before mankind emerged. Vitrix’s fascinating hand-blown glass pieces transcend all categorization, expressing a fantastical personality all their own.

With their fantastical shape of colorful whorls adorning a clear or black stem, these abstract glass sculptures resemble the swirling bands of light that make up the Milky Way. The individual ribbons of glass carefully wrapped one-over-the-other are not only the most challenging aspects of creating the Heechee, but they also convey a sense of movement, as if traveling among the stars, and the inescapable influence of gravity which, it turns out, is an essential tool used by master glass artist Tom Kelly in creating these unique and colorful pieces. On weekdays, during working hours, visitors to the Vitrix shop can watch Tom and his team making various glass objects ranging from snow people to HeeChees.

In a way, you might say that bicycles helped pave the way for rocket-ships and space travel.

The ways people travel have evolved over the years, as more and more technologies are invented to provide an ever-increasing ability to go fast. One small town boy who translated his need for speed into a career as an inventor and transportation pioneer was Glenn Curtiss.

Born in Hammondsport in the late 1800s, Curtiss loved to race bicycles as a boy. Cycling—still a somewhat new means of transportation—offered the rider a faster way to get around than running could do, though for some that still wasn’t fast enough. One day, Curtiss, who was also a tinkerer, built a motor intended to help a dirigible fly. Before sending the engine to the balloonist, Curtiss strapped it onto a modified bicycle frame and sped across a sandy beach in Florida becoming the “fastest man on earth.”

In many ways, that one feat changed the world. For Curtiss was drawn into the world of aviation where he went on to receive the first pilot’s license issued in the United States. He won the first aeronautical award in the country and soon became “the world’s foremost flier.”

You can learn more about Glenn Curtiss and his contributions to aviation with a visit to the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum (8419 NY-54, Hammondsport, NY 14840) where you can see replicas as well as authentic vintage motorcycles and airplanes on display.

Did you know that the founder of Bully Hill Vineyards (8843 Greyton H Taylor Memorial Dr., Hammondsport, NY 14840) was the official artist for NASA? Yeah, we didn’t think you did. Walter Taylor was a bit of a renaissance man: a pilot, artist, marketing genius, and farmer. He was also a person who stood up for his beliefs even when they went against accepted practices. At one time, the Taylor Winery was the largest producer of sparkling wine in the country. As the wine industry relaxed some of the regulations on winemaking, allowing for the addition of water and for tank cars to bring in juice from other parts of the country, Walter gave a speech at a wine event in California only to return home to the family winery and learn he had been given the boot by his uncles.

With the help of his father, Walter was undeterred and founded Bully Hill on the original site of the Taylor Winery. He made his own wines, created his own labels, determined to make authentic NY wines that only used New York grapes and that weren’t watered down. Of course, along the way, Walter was forbidden from using his own name on his labels, so he invited local Cornell and Ithaca College students to blackout parties where they would black out the names from existing labels.

You can learn more about Walter’s remarkable David versus Goliath story, "Irreverent Genius," HERE.

Better yet, visit Bully Hill Vineyards to see some of Walter’s original art (after all, how many winery’s have their own pop art gallery) and grab a bottle of Space Shuttle Red to take home.

When it comes to wines that have a natural connection to a total solar eclipse, none seem more apt than Heron Hill Winery’s most popular table wines Eclipse White and Eclipse Red. These wines (both are blends) have been Heron Hill’s most popular wines for the past two decades. Some years, you can even enjoy Eclipse Rosé. Learn more about Heron Hill’s wines HERE.

A winery known for its sustainability efforts, Heron Hill (9301 Co Rd 76, Hammondsport, NY 14840) has received acclaim for its wines and also for its ambience being named by Travel & Leisure magazine as one of the “Top 10 Most Spectacular Tasting Rooms in the World.” What better place to spend an afternoon enjoying excellent vintages and taking in the stunning beauty of the region.

You might know that famed author and humorist Mark Twain was born shortly after Halley's Comet appeared in 1895 and he even made a prediction that he would “go out with it” as well, dying a day after the comet was at its closest to Earth.

He called himself and the comet,...