In just a couple of hours, a historical celestial event will take place. And it will be visible to millions and millions of people. Unfortunately for most of us here on Senses, none of the places this event will be visible from are in North America. But, thanks to live, streaming video, we’ll all be able to watch the longest total solar eclipse of the century, as it happens.

If everything goes as planned (and if it doesn’t, it means something has gone terribly, terribly wrong) the eclipse will last six minutes and thirty nine seconds, at its longest duration. The maximum time a total eclipse could ever last is just over seven minutes, so this is a big one. The path of totality (the darkness that falls as the moon completely blocks the sun) travels from northern India, through parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, then into China, where it will be visible to tens of millions of people, weather dependent. The eclipse’s path will then take it to sea, where it will pass Japan’s Ryukyu Islands before heading out into the Pacific Ocean.

If you’re reading this, odds are you’re not likely to be able to get anywhere near that path in the next couple hours. For those of us on the wrong side of the planet, NASA has kindly provided both an extremely in-depth information page, and some links to sites to sites that will be streaming video of the eclipse from various points along the path of totality. I also did some poking around on my iPhone to see if there’s an app for that. Just search for “Eclipse 2009″ and you’ll find at least one app that offers info on tonight’s eclipse…though there didn’t seem to be any streaming video. So you might be best off heading over to one of those linked webcasts. The action starts in just a couple hours, at 5:30 PST or thereabouts, so it’s almost time to start popping that popcorn.