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THERE is a total solar eclipse anticipated to be coming up in early April this year.

This will be the first major solar eclipse to cross North America in seven years (not visible from Africa).

You can expect to hear a lot about it in the coming weeks, because it will be visible from 14 U.S. States, as well as Canada and Mexico. That is what will be driving the hype.

On the whole, solar eclipses are fairly common with about two to five happening every year. Although a total solar eclipse comes around about once every 18 months.

They usually happen over the ocean, or across swathes of land that are not densely populated.

This eclipse will be seen from several major north American cities. These include Dallas and San Antonio in Texas, Little Rock in Arkansas, Cleveland in Ohio, Buffalo in New York, and Niagara Falls on the Canadian border.

Canada’s second largest city, Montreal (population 3.6 million), will see the sun fully blocked out and darkness descend, but only from downtown locations and not all the suburbs.

Toronto, the largest Canadian city (population 5.6 million) will have a 99.9 per cent eclipse.

So, 99.9 per cent is basically 100 per cent, right? Right?

SOLAR ECLIPSES

Apparently not so when it comes to solar eclipses, says Olivier Hernandez, who is director of the Rio Tinto Alcan Planétarium in Montreal.

He is adamant that a 99.9 per cent eclipse is “not the same thing at all” as a 100 per cent total eclipse. He advises those poor folk stuck in the land of a pitiful 99.9 per cent to go somewhere in the path of totality “if they want to experience something rare and emotional”.

I have personally never seen a full eclipse, but I do hear Hernandez’s opinion expressed over and over again.

Namely, that the 100% experience is a deeply emotional event that 99.9 per cent just doesn’t deliver proportionately.

It is said to be worth it to travel to get into the path of totality.

I recently read the story of a man who tried to do just that. But his mistake was booking accommodation at an Airbnb.

He bemoaned that he booked his Airbnb in the eclipse’s pathway more than a year ago, only to have his booking cancelled days before when the owners of the Airbnb realised they could charge a lot more for the April 8 eclipse period.

Don’t let that happen to you in the year 2030 or in 2046. Both years will have a significant eclipse visible from our part of the world.

FULL MONTY

The eclipse of November 25, 2030 will have most of Eswatini mostly in the dark. What I mean by that is that at around 7.30am, up to 97 per cent of the sun will be covered by the moon, making it seem like an early sunset has come so shortly after sunrise.

Durban, meanwhile, will get the full Monty experience, with 100 per cent of the sun covered by the moon, plunging the whole city into darkness for several minutes.

You may want to head south for the 2030 event.

But if you expect to be around for a good decade plus more, then you can make grand plans for 2046.

Eswatini will have the full totality experience in August 2046. The entire country will be in the pathway of the total eclipse. Especially exciting about this one is that it will occur at midday, not some namby-pamby early morning event when the day has barely started, but rather a complete plunge into the apparent dead of night straight from the dead middle of the day.

I can’t wait.