If you were stuck inside Monday and missed the eclipse, don't worry. You still have a chance to experience a total eclipse of the sun in seven years.
Mark April 8, 2024, on your calendar. On that date, at 5:17 p.m., the eclipse will commence in Austin, Texas, turning daylight into twilight. The total eclipse will be visible in Austin at 6:36 p.m. and last a little over a minute, during which time massive streams of light will be streaking through the sky around the silhouette of the moon.
The moon will move from in front of the sun at 7:58 p.m., according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
For those who need a primer on eclipses and the associated lingo: A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, obscuring the sun. A partial eclipse means the sun is partially obscured. A total eclipse is uncommon, happening only when the moon is totally between the sun and where a particular person happens to be standing. The “path of the totality” is the narrow lane on the planet’s surface from which a full eclipse is visible.
The 2024 eclipse’s totality will track from southwest to northeast, going through Central Mexico and up through Texas, before making for Indiana and on through Maine. Austin and Dallas lie just inside the path of totality.
While it's rare that a total solar eclipse is visible from the same spot on Earth within 100 years, that will be the case for people in Carbondale, Illinois. Residents there could see the total solar eclipse Monday and will be able to do so again in 2024, according to the Dayton Daily News.
The total solar eclipse in 2024 will cross through 13 states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, according to EarthSky.org.
The only U.S. state that will get visibility of the next total solar eclipse, which will occur on March 20, 2033, will be Alaska, Newsweek reported.
Spencer Platt
Spencer Platt
Brianna Chambers and Dayton Daily News contributed to this report.
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