Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

A total solar eclipse will take place at the Moon's ascending node of the orbit on April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse (also Great American Total Solar Eclipse and Great American Eclipse) by some of the 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 in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.

Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureTotal
Gamma0.3431
Magnitude1.0566
Maximum eclipse
Duration268 sec (4 m 28 s)
LocationNazas, Durango, Mexico
Coordinates25.3°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

Occurring only one day after perigee (perigee on April 7, 2024), the Moon's apparent diameter will be larger than usual. With a magnitude of 1.0566, its longest duration of totality will be of four minutes and 28.13 seconds near the town of Nazas, Durango, Mexico, and the nearby city of Torreón, Coahuila.

This eclipse will be the first solar eclipse to be visible from Canada since May 10, 1994, the first in Mexico since July 11, 1991,[4] and the first in the U.S. since August 21, 2017. It will be the only total solar eclipse in the 21st century where totality is visible in Mexico, the United States of America, and Canada.[5]

The next solar eclipse occurs 177 days later.

Visibility
Animation of path

Totality will be visible in a narrow strip 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 Durango and Gómez Palacio) and Coahuila (including Torreón, Matamoros, Monclova, Sabinas, Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras).

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 and Waco), Oklahoma, Arkansas (including Hot Springs, Jonesboro, and Little Rock), Missouri, Illinois (including Carbondale), Kentucky, Indiana (including Bloomington, Evansville, Indianapolis, Muncie, Terre Haute, and Vincennes), Ohio (including Akron, Dayton, Lima, Roundhead, Toledo, Cleveland, Warren, Newton Falls and Austintown), Michigan (a very small area near the Toledo Strip), Pennsylvania (including Erie), Upstate New York (including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, the Adirondacks, Potsdam, and Plattsburgh), and northern Vermont (including Burlington), New Hampshire, and Maine,[6][7] 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. It will be the second total eclipse visible from the central United States in just 7 years, after the eclipse of August 21, 2017.

Totality will pass through the town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, home of Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot upon the Moon.

Canada

In Canada, the path of totality will pass over parts of Southern Ontario (including Leamington, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Kingston, Prince Edward County, and Cornwall), parts of southern Quebec (including Montreal, Sherbrooke and the Mont Mégantic Observatory),[8] central New Brunswick (including Fredericton and Miramichi),[9] western Prince Edward Island (including Tignish and Summerside),[10] the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia,[11] and central Newfoundland (including Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor). Then, it will vanish on the eastern Atlantic coast of Newfoundland. (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.)

Europe

The eclipse will be partially seen in Svalbard (Norway), in Iceland, Ireland, west parts of Great Britain, north-west parts of Spain and Portugal, the Azores and Canary Islands.[12]

The path of this 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.[13] 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 intersection of the paths of totality of both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses, therefore earning the distinction of being witness to two total solar eclipses within a span of seven years.

Eclipses of 2024

Solar eclipses 2022–2025

This 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.[14]

Saros 139

It is a part of saros series 139, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 17, 1501. It contains hybrid eclipses on August 11, 1627 through to December 9, 1825 and total eclipses from December 21, 1843 through to March 26, 2601. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on July 3, 2763. Its eclipses are entabulated in three columns; each one in the same column, every third eclipse, is one exeligmos apart so cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the earth.

The solar eclipse of June 13, 2132 will be the longest total solar eclipse since July 11, 1991 at 6 minutes, 55.02 seconds.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 39 at 7 minutes, 29.22 seconds on July 16, 2186.[15] After that date each duration will decrease, until the series end. This date is the longest solar eclipse computed between 4000BC and 6000AD.[16] Saros series eclipses are during the Moon’s ascending node (a term related to our equator and polar-naming conventions).

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

In the 22nd century:

  • Solar Saros 147: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2111 Aug 04
  • Solar Saros 148: Total Solar Eclipse of 2122 Jul 04
  • Solar Saros 149: Total Solar Eclipse of 2133 Jun 03
  • Solar Saros 150: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2144 May 03
  • Solar Saros 151: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2155 Apr 02
  • Solar Saros 152: Total Solar Eclipse of 2166 Mar 02
  • Solar Saros 153: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2177 Jan 29
  • Solar Saros 154: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2187 Dec 29
  • Solar Saros 155: Total Solar Eclipse of 2198 Nov 28

In the 23rd century:

  • Solar Saros 156: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2209 Oct 29
  • Solar Saros 157: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2220 Sep 27
  • Solar Saros 158: Total Solar Eclipse of 2231 Aug 28
  • Solar Saros 159: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2242 Jul 28
  • Solar Saros 160: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2253 Jun 26
  • Solar Saros 161: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2264 May 26
  • Solar Saros 162: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2275 Apr 26
  • Solar Saros 163: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2286 Mar 25
  • Solar Saros 164: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2297 Feb 22

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.

Other solar eclipses crossing the United States
Further information: List of solar eclipses visible from the United States

Notable total and annular solar eclipse crossing the United States from 1900 to 2050:

Total Annular Total Total Annular Annular Total Annular Total Total Annular

Jun 8, 1918
Sep 1, 1951
Jun 30, 1954
Feb 26, 1979
May 30, 1984
May 10, 1994
Aug 21, 2017
Oct 14, 2023
Apr 8, 2024
Aug 12, 2045
Jun 11, 2048

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". London: Daily Express / Sunday Express. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  4. Total Solar Eclipse in Mexico, 1991 (in Spanish). National Autonomous University of Mexico. 1991. ISBN 9789683617613. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
  5. "Location of Total Solar Eclipse of April 8, 2024". GreatAmericanEclipse.com. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  6. 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.
  7. Eliasen, Terry (August 21, 2017). "Next Solar Eclipse Puts New England In Path Of Totality". CBS Boston. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  8. "August 21st Solar Eclipse". Astrolab du parc national du Mont-Mégantic. Retrieved August 29, 2017. Prepare for the next Total Solar Eclipse, on April 8th, 2024. The totality will pass directly in Mont-Mégantic National Park and it's ASTROLab !
  9. Fowler, Shane (August 23, 2017). "Prime location to view total eclipse in 7 years? New Brunswick". CBC News. Woodstock and Miramichi will spend the most time in the dark with totality durations of 3:17 and 3:09. Fredericton will experience about 2:21 minutes of totality. Moncton, Saint John and Bathurst will just miss out on experiencing a total technical blackout, but will still see 98 to 99 per cent of the sun disappear.
  10. Yarr, Kevin (August 23, 2017). "P.E.I. on the path for 2024 total solar eclipse". CBC News. Retrieved August 29, 2017. Totality will cover the Island from about Summerside and west, with the centre of the path crossing over North Cape.
  11. https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/segoogle/segoogle2001/se2024apr08tgoogle.html
  12. Map of Total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024
  13. "Total Solar Eclipse 2017 - Path Overlap with the 2024 Eclipse". eclipse2017.org. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  14. van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  15. Saros Series Catalog of Solar Eclipses NASA Eclipse Web Site.
  16. Ten Millennium Catalog of Long Solar Eclipses, -3999 to +6000 (4000 BCE to 6000 CE) Fred Espenak.
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