BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- When the moon glides across the sun, church bells will toll in rural Romania, thanks to peasants atoning for their sins. They'll also be watching out for rivers running with blood.
But in the cities, superstition takes a back seat to logic and culture -- at least for Wednesday's solar eclipse.Luciano Pavarotti will sing and scientists and tourists will be ready to view the celestial event, expected by NASA to be visible in Romania for 2 minutes and 22 seconds, longer than anywhere else in the world.
For $200 a ticket, the Italian tenor will hold a concert Wednesday after the eclipse in the shadow of the hulking, white palace built by late Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Workers spent weeks building a stage for Pavarotti under a burning sun -- toiling almost as hard as government officials determined to promote Romania as THE place to see the eclipse.
Tourists are expected in the tens of thousands.
Meanwhile, scientists including NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and dozens of others from the United States, Japan and Britain, have staked out their telescopes in the central city of Ramnicu Valcea, the spot where the eclipse is the longest.
Bryce Babacock, a professor at Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass., says digital cameras will record 20,000 images of the eclipse. The 20-member American team hopes to gain vital information about solar heating -- that is, if the sunny weather holds.
For the less scientific minded, a fashion designer has brought out an "Eclipse" collection of clothing in gold, for the sun, and white, for the moon.
The traditional peasant explanation for the eclipse has it that a wild animal eats the sun to punish men for their sins, says Vladimir Manoliu, a researcher at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant. They ring church bells to appease evil spirits.
And in Romania, you can never forget Dracula. To help conjure a spooky eclipse mood, TV stations already have started airing films about that mythical character, inspired by the bloodthirsty native prince Vlad the Impaler.