Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024


A total solar eclipse will take place at the Moon’s ascending node of the orbit on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse by some of the media. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly 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. Occurring only 1 day after perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter will be larger.
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 total solar eclipse to be visible from Canada since February 26, 1979, the first in Mexico since July 11, 1991, 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.
The next solar eclipse occurs 177 days later.

Visibility

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, Durango and Coahuila.

United States

In the United States, totality will be visible through the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, and northern Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, 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, parts of southern Quebec, central New Brunswick, western Prince Edward Island,, the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and central Newfoundland. Then, it will vanish on the eastern Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.

[Europe]

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

Related eclipses

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. 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.

Solar eclipses 2022–2025

Saros 139

Tritos series

Metonic series

Other solar eclipses crossing the United States

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

Jun 8, 1918
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