If that’s not enough, NASA is launching three satellites as part of its Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission. Unfortunately for NASA, Apep is also the name of an ancient Egyptian snake god associated with darkness and destruction – a coincidence that conspirators have decided is relevant. A celestial body known as the devil’s comet will also be visible to the naked eye during the solar eclipse.
Finally, many have associated the eclipse with the upcoming sacrifice of red heifers in IsraelA practice that some Jews and evangelicals believe will variously herald the building of a third temple in Jerusalem, the return of the Messiah, or the end of the world.
“Red heifers from Texas have arrived in Israel, where they will be sacrificed during the solar eclipse,” the operator of a prominent conspiracy channel on Telegram wrote this week in a post that has been viewed more than 120,000 times. “At the same time, CERN will open demonic portals.”
Videos citing all of these coincidences have been posted by conspirators – as well as many Christian evangelical pastors and churches – and have been viewed millions of times on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok in recent weeks.
“There are many indications that the total solar eclipse in America on Monday is the start of something big,” a renowned British QAnon promoter told his Substack subscribers in an email on Thursday. ‘Whether the day itself is clearly epic: Nibiru? ETs? DNA activation?” (Nibiru is a conspiracy-laden reference to a predicted cataclysmic encounter between Earth and a large planetary object.)
Sovereign citizen guru David Straight has also posited a wild conspiracy called Operation Balloon, claiming that the government, using the eclipse blackout as cover, will deploy balloons filled with poisonous gas. However, Straight did not explain why the government wouldn’t just do this at night, when it’s also dark and people don’t typically stare at the sky.
One image showing the path of the eclipse passing over a dozen major landmarks has also been widely shared online. Points of interest include the birthplaces of former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Mike Pence; the site of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio; the site of the 1993 massacre in Waco, Texas; and the site of the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
As one UK-based veteran conspirator wrote on X last weekend, in a post that has been viewed 7.7 million times: “That’s a lot of coincidences.”
There is, of course, absolutely no evidence to support the conspiracies outlined by these individuals and groups. But if they’re unable or unwilling to marvel at a celestial phenomenon that humans have enjoyed for centuries, that probably warrants at least some introspection.