Are you ready for 2024?
On April 8 of next year, what promises to be the most viewed total eclipse in history will sweep across North America. Remember the amazing eclipse in 2017? More than 12 million Americans lived within the path of totality for that event. This time, the number who can simply walk outside and see the total eclipse (given clear skies, of course) soars to more than 31 million. More than half the U.S. population lives within 250 miles of the path of totality. It will be an astonishing, widely viewed celestial event.
If you don’t know where you’re going for the eclipse yet, it’s high time to start figuring it out. The path moves through Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Maine, and into Canada.
Michael E. Bakich’s story “Plan for the 2024 total solar eclipse,” on page 36, will give you a highly useful starting point for this adventure. Additionally, Michael has written “Simulate totality,” page 48, which highlights a website produced by veteran eclipse chaser Dan McGlaun that will help in many ways with your eclipse planning.
And please don’t forget a mighty warmup act: this October’s annular eclipse. On the 14th of that month, an eclipse that leaves a thin ring of sunlight around the Moon will carry across the American Southwest. The path moves from Oregon through Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
This is merely the opening salvo. Expect to see continuing coverage in our pages and at Astronomy.com of these two big astronomical events. And try not to miss the 2024 total eclipse, especially. The next total eclipse to come in the U.S. won’t occur until 2045.
Yours truly,