www.almanac.com/total-solar-eclipse-2024-path-totality-across-americas?trk_msg=P46GJJO3VTB43594G7L39TFING&trk_contact=5J1JRHJPT93ROOO76HHIICR5LG&trk_sid=GRDVN2E171LFFI5IIC3AK5GCHS&trk_link=2I31NBANN7SKT6LMQQ4AGR2OD0&lctg=C4F374DFD4CD55509533E5343E&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Button+-+Article&utm_campaign=Tractor+Supply&utm_content=TSC-Store-04-07-2024Everything you need to know from a veteran eclipse chaser
Bob Berman
April 2, 2024
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Why is the April 8 total eclipse a big deal? Totality lasts over four minutes, and 32 million Americans will be on the path! Totality won’t happen again on U.S. soil for 20 years. See Bob Berman’s excellent guide with eclipse times and more information.
Your next chance in the U.S. won’t happen until August 12, 2045. Learn how often solar eclipses occur.
The 2024 Total Eclipse Guide
To me, the total solar eclipse experience tops the list of nature’s most incredible celestial events that you could witness from Earth’s surface. Most people are awed by a brilliant comet, which happens every 15 to 20 years on average. And also by a bright display of the Northern Lights. One might include the rare bolide or exploding meteor. But the very best of them all—number one—is a total eclipse of the Sun.
Yes, the total eclipse tops them all. Watching deep pink geysers of nuclear fire shoot from the Sun’s edge, you feel nature’s absolute climax has been attained. It’s not only an otherworldly experience but also an incredible cosmic coincidence. How else do we explain that the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun but also 400 times nearer to us? This makes the only two disks in our sky appear the same size! It would not be the case if either were larger, smaller, nearer, or farther away.
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I’ve run astronomy tours for years, and half of the clients I’ve taken to see total solar eclipses have wept. Real tears. From the sheer emotional impact of what their eyes were beholding. Will a lunar eclipse make you weep? Will a peek at Mars through a telescope? No, they won’t. This experience manages to touch your very core. “The home of my soul!” is how Rita Marinelli described the solar eclipse she viewed with our group on February 16, 1980, from northeastern India.
What is a Total Solar Eclipse?
Witnessing solar totality tops the list of nature’s most phenomenal wonders.
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During a TOTAL solar eclipse, the Moon completely blocks the Sun while it passes perfectly between the Earth and the Sun. A shadow is cast onto Earth, and the sky turns nearly as dark as night.
The sun’s corona gleams a total solar eclipse in 2012 as viewed in Australia. (Credit: Romeo Durscher via NASA)
What is the 2024 Path of Totality?
The total solar eclipse on the afternoon of Monday, April 8, 2024, should be the most watched total solar eclipse in history, which is very exciting for all school children and science geeks like myself.
Why? The “path of totality” on which you can see totality is wider and more populated than the 2017 eclipse. Over 32 million people live on the path of totality, compared to 12 million in 2017—nearly three times as many people.
Also, tens of millions of people in North America live near the path of totality so that they can travel easily to the path.
so much more at link