As part of the upcoming Total Eclipse event, Historic Downtown Sikeston was able to purchase telescopes and sunoculars for residents and visitors to view the Eclipse.

Jason Davis, executive director of Historic Downtown Sikeston, said 10 telescopes and 20 pairs of sunoculars, which are sun binoculars, were purchased through a Path of Totality Grant from the Simons Foundation.

The telescopes and sunoculars will be set up around Historic Downtown Sikeston this weekend with five at the Sikeston Public Library Saturday morning for the Animal Tales program at 10 a.m.

There will also be telescopes at the Sikeston Jaycee’s Crawfish Boil Saturday evening, prior to the sun going down so those in attendance can use them to look at the sun.

On Sunday evening, along with the Movie in Legion Park, five telescopes will be set up at about 6:30 p.m.

During the Total Eclipse event Monday, five telescopes will be set up in the Sikeston Public Library parking lot and five in the Sikeston Depot parking lot. The viewing will start around lunchtime and go through the moment of totality, which begins at 1:58 and ends over three minutes later.

After the event, the telescopes and sunoculars, will be donated to the Sikeston Public Library for future use.

“We wanted to do something that would make an impact beyond this single weekend, and we decided this was one way to do that,” Davis said. “This work was made possible through the Simons Foundation’s In the Path of Totality initiative in partnership with Main Street America. We are thankful that Historic Downtown Sikeston was given the opportunity to participate in this initiative.”