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Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

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This article is about the 2024 total solar eclipse dubbed "the Great North American Eclipse". For the 2017 total solar eclipse dubbed "the Great American Eclipse", see Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.
"2024 solar eclipse" redirects here. For the October eclipse, see Solar eclipse of October 2, 2024.

Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024
The solar eclipse during totality, seen from Dallas, Texas
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureTotal
Gamma0.3431
Magnitude1.0566
Maximum eclipse
Duration268 s (4 min 28 s)
LocationNazas, Mexico
Coordinates25°18′N 104°06′W / 25.3°N 104.1°W / 25.3; -104.1
Max. width of band198 km (123 mi)
Times (UTC)
(P1) Partial begin15:42:07
(U1) Total begin16:38:44
Greatest eclipse18:18:29
(U4) Total end19:55:29
(P4) Partial end20:52:14
References
Saros139 (30 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)9561

A total solar eclipse will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse by some media.[1][2][3] A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs only in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.

Occurring only one day after perigee (perigee on Sunday, April 7, 2024), the Moon's apparent diameter will be 5.5% larger than average. With a magnitude of 1.0566, its longest duration of totality will be of 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds near the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango, (about 4 mi (6 km) north), and the nearby city of Torreón, Coahuila.

This eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse to be visible in the provinces of Canada since February 26, 1979,[4][5] the first in Mexico since July 11, 1991,[6] and the first in the United States since August 21, 2017. It will be the only total solar eclipse in the 21st century where totality will be visible in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.[7] It will also be the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.

The final solar eclipse of the year will occur six months later, on October 2, 2024.

Visibility

Animation of path

The totality of the solar eclipse will be visible in a narrow strip on the Pacific Ocean passing 230 miles (370 km) north of the Marquesas Islands and later in North America, beginning at the Pacific coast, then ascending in a northeasterly direction through Mexico, the United States, and Canada, before ending in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mexico

In Mexico, totality will pass through the states of Sinaloa (including Mazatlán), Durango (including the city of Durango and Gómez Palacio) and Coahuila (including Torreón, Matamoros, Monclova, Sabinas, Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras).[8][9][10]

United States

In the United States, totality will be visible through the states of Texas (including parts of San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth and all of Arlington, Dallas, Killeen, Temple, Texarkana, Tyler, Sulphur Springs and Waco), Oklahoma, Arkansas (including Morrilton/Petit Jean, Hot Springs, Searcy, Jonesboro, and Little Rock), Missouri, Tennessee (extreme northwestern corner of Lake County), Illinois (including Carbondale, where it intersects the path of the 2017 eclipse), Kentucky, Indiana (including Bloomington, Evansville, Indianapolis, Anderson, Muncie, Terre Haute, and Vincennes), Ohio (including Akron, Cleveland, Dayton, Lima, Lorain, Toledo, and Warren), Michigan (extreme southeastern corner of Monroe County), Pennsylvania (including Erie), Upstate New York (including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown, the Adirondacks, Potsdam, and Plattsburgh), and northern Vermont (including Burlington), New Hampshire, and Maine,[11][12] with the line of totality going almost directly over the state's highest point Mount Katahdin. The largest city entirely in the path will be Dallas, Texas.[citation needed] It will be the second total eclipse visible from the central United States in just 7 years, after the eclipse of August 21, 2017 (see "Related Eclipses", below). This will be the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.[13]

A partial solar eclipse will be visible in all of the other parts of the contiguous United States and in the Southeast Alaska (Alaska Panhandle).

Canada

In Canada, the path of totality will pass over parts of Southern and Eastern Ontario (including Leamington, Fort Erie[14], Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Kingston, Prince Edward County, and Cornwall),[15] parts of southern Quebec (including Montreal, Sherbrooke, Saint-Georges and Lac-Mégantic), central New Brunswick (including Fredericton, Woodstock and Miramichi),[16] western Prince Edward Island (including Tignish and Summerside),[17][18] the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia,[19] and central Newfoundland (including Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor). Then, it will vanish on the eastern Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.[20] Some of the Canadian cities listed, such as Hamilton and Montreal, are on an edge of the path of totality. Windsor, London, Toronto and Ottawa lie just north of the path of totality, and Moncton lies just south of it.

A partial solar eclipse will be visible in all of the other parts of Canada, except the western part of Yukon and the western tip of the Northwest Territories.

Europe

The eclipse will be partially seen in Svalbard (Norway), Iceland, Ireland, western parts of Great Britain, north-west parts of Spain and Portugal, the Azores and Canary Islands.[21] Unusually, this eclipse extends below the horizon, where the greatest phase is to be observed at mid-nautical twilight in Galicia (Spain) and the beginning of astronomical twilight in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France).[22] The extension of the eclipse path within the twilight zone will create probably the best observation window for the 12P/Pons-Brooks comet located closely to Jupiter.[23]

Central America and South America

The eclipse will be partially seen in all Central American countries, from Belize to Panama, all the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Jamaica), and northern South America (Colombia).

Oceania

The eclipse will be partially seen in Hawaii, eastern Kiribati (eastern Phoenix Islands and the whole Line Islands), Tokelau, American Samoa except its extreme western part, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Pitcairn Islands. Although all located east of the 180th meridian, the local time of the partial eclipse in Kiribati and Tokelau is Tuesday, April 9, 2024, because either UTC+13 or UTC+14 is observed in these areas.

Cloud-cover prospects along the path

April is a month of changeable weather along the eclipse path. The weather in Mexico and the southern United States include afternoon convective buildups, whereas northern regions are still immersed in late winter and early spring weather, with passing low-pressure disturbances (e.g., rain, snow). Of these disturbances, eclipse-day cloud cover is most likely, unless severe storms are present across the south or spring storms with blizzard-like conditions are passing in the north. Cloud patterns are simple: lowest average cloud coverage occur in the south, particularly in Mexico, whereas the highest amounts of coverage crop up in the northeastern United States and Canada.[24]

Graph of average April cloud cover along the eclipse path.
Graph of average fractional April cloud cover along the central axis of the 2024 total eclipse path derived from 21 years of daytime polar-orbiting-satellite observations. Fractional values can be treated as percentages. Data: CM-SAF, EUMETSAT.

Delta Air Lines has scheduled a special eclipse-following flight from Austin to Detroit on a large-window A220-300, and various other flights in the path of totality will also avoid cloud cover entirely.[25]

Reaction

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders preemptively declared a state of emergency related to the eclipse, citing the expected increase of travel to the state which may potentially result in transportation difficulties.[26]

The region surrounding Niagara Falls, Ontario also declared a state of emergency; as an existing major tourist destination along the path of totality, it expected an influx of a million visitors on April 8.[27]

The eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.[28]. It is also part of saros series 139, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours, containing 71 events, and part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month).

The path of the April 8, 2024 eclipse will cross the path of the prior total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, with the intersection of the two paths being in southern Illinois, in Makanda, just south of Carbondale.[29] The cities of Benton, Carbondale, Chester, Harrisburg, Marion, and Metropolis in Illinois; Cape Girardeau, Farmington, and Perryville in Missouri, as well as Paducah, Kentucky, will be within a roughly 9,000-square-mile (23,000 km2) intersection of the paths of totality of both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses.

See also

References

  1. ^ Jamie Carter (April 8, 2019). "Countdown Begins To 'Great North American Eclipse', The Longest, Darkest and Best For 21 Years". Forbes. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  2. ^ Doris Elin Urrutia (August 21, 2019). "It's Not Too Early to Plan for the Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024". Space.com. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  3. ^ Sebastian Kettley (August 23, 2019). "Solar eclipse: Another 'Great American Eclipse' is coming – Get ready for solar spectacle". Daily Express. London. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  4. ^ Aziz, Saba (February 12, 2024). "Total solar eclipse: All you need to know about the rare celestial event". Global News. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  5. ^ Dickinson, Terence (August 3, 2017). "Canada's last solar eclipse in 1979". Maclean's. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  6. ^ Total Solar Eclipse in Mexico, 1991 (in Spanish). National Autonomous University of Mexico. 1991. ISBN 9789683617613. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  7. ^ "Location of Total Solar Eclipse of April 8, 2024". GreatAmericanEclipse.com. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  8. ^ "Total Solar Eclipse in Mexico". Time and Date. April 2024. Retrieved April 7, 2024. Total Solar Eclipse durations: Durango, Durango - 3m 47s; Mazatlan, Sinaloa - 4m 20s; Torreón, Coahuila de Zaragoza - 4m 9s.
  9. ^ Carter, Jamie (November 20, 2023). "The best places in Mexico to see the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024". Space news. Retrieved April 7, 2024. Mazatlán, on the country's western coast, will be the first region of mainland Mexico to experience totality, followed by Durango, Torreón and Monclova as the path tracks northeast toward the U.S. border at Piedras Negras.
  10. ^ "Solar Eclipse of April 8 2024 from Mazatlán, Mexico". The Sky Live. April 7, 2024. Retrieved April 7, 2024. A Total Eclipse of magnitude 1.0216 will be visible from Mazatlán, Mexico on April 8 2024. Maximum eclipse will be at 11:09:38 local time and totality duration will be 4m 19s.
  11. ^ Gore, Leada (August 22, 2017). "Solar eclipse 2024: Best U.S. cities to see the next total solar eclipse". The Birmingham News. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  12. ^ Eliasen, Terry (August 21, 2017). "Next Solar Eclipse Puts New England in Path Of Totality". CBS Boston. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  13. ^ Hauari, Gabe; Lagatta, Eric (March 1, 2024), "When is the next total solar eclipse in the US after 2024? Here's what you need to know.", USA Today, retrieved April 8, 2024
  14. ^ Jubier, Xavier (April 7, 2024). "Total Eclipse for Fort Erie, Canada". Google Maps. Fort Erie totality 3m 46s.
  15. ^ Nielsen, Kevin (April 5, 2024). "Total solar eclipse: Where the best views in Ontario are expected to be". Global News. Fort Erie will experience the longest totality at 3m 46s, with Niagara Falls following closely at 3m 31s, both occurring at 3:20 pm.
  16. ^ Urquhart, Mia (January 22, 2024). "N.B. has front-row seat for 'once-in-a-lifetime' total solar eclipse on April 8". CBC News. Fredericton, Woodstock, and Miramichi are in the 'path of totality'. Moncton and Saint John, just outside, get about 98% sun coverage.
  17. ^ Goodsell, Devon (September 5, 2022). "'Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' to view 2024 total solar eclipse on P.E.I." CBC News. Retrieved April 7, 2024. Totality visible west of Summerside: 1m 2s. In Tignish, totality lasts 3m 12s.
  18. ^ "Timing of 2024 Solar Eclipse". University of Prince Edward Island. March 28, 2023. Retrieved April 7, 2024. Timing and duration of the total eclipse will vary slightly across the Island.
  19. ^ "NASA – Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 Apr 08". March 27, 2008. Archived from the original on March 27, 2008.
  20. ^ Jubier, Xavier (April 7, 2024). "The Eclipse vanishing off the eastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada". Google Maps. Totality on the eastern coast of Newfoundland: 2m 53s.
  21. ^ "Eclipse Path of Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024". www.timeanddate.com.
  22. ^ "2024 solar eclipse in Europe". European Eclipse Quadruplet.
  23. ^ "12P/Pons Brooks comet during 2024 total solar eclipse". Astro-Geo-GIS.com.
  24. ^ Espenak, Fred and Anderson, Jay. "Get Ready for Totality in '24" Sky&Telescope (April 2023), pp. 26-35. AAS Sky Publishing, Washington, DC.
  25. ^ Diba Mohtasham (February 22, 2024). "Delta's special total solar eclipse flight sold out in 24 hours". NPR.
  26. ^ Sosa, Abner (April 6, 2024). "Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declares state of emergency ahead of solar eclipse". KHBS. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  27. ^ Li, Justin (March 30, 2024). "Niagara Falls declares state of emergency in advance of huge influx of eclipse visitors". CBC News. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  28. ^ van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  29. ^ "Total Solar Eclipse 2017 – Path Overlap with the 2024 Eclipse". eclipse2017.org. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
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