![]() The center line crosses the border into Tennessee around 1:26 p.m. Totality for that state starts there two minutes earlier and lasts until nearly 1:29 p.m. The center line leaves Illinois at its Ohio River border with Kentucky just past 1:24 p.m. At 1:19, the shadow’s midpoint crosses the Mississippi River, which at that location is the state border with Illinois. CDT and enters Missouri a scant two minutes later. The center line hits the very northeastern part of Kansas at 1:04 p.m. Next up is Wyoming, where the umbral center line dwells until just past 11:49 a.m. After a great west-to-east path across Oregon, the center line takes roughly nine minutes to cross a wide swath of Idaho, entering the western part of the state just before 11:25 a.m. The center line crosses through 10 states. There, the total phase lasts 1 minute, 58.5 seconds.ġ2. If you want to be the first person to experience totality in the continental U.S., be on the waterfront at Government Point, Oregon, at 10:15:56.5 a.m. The shadow is round, however, so the longest eclipse occurs at its center line because that’s where you’ll experience the Moon’s shadow’s full width.ġ1. People across its width would experience the same duration of darkness. If it were square, it wouldn’t matter where you viewed totality. ![]() This probably isn’t a revelation, but the Moon’s shadow is round. Only totality reveals the true celestial spectacle: the diamond ring, the Sun’s glorious corona, strange colors in our sky, and seeing stars in the daytime.ġ0. And it doesn’t matter whether the partial eclipse above your location is 48, 58, or 98 percent. You won’t even notice your surroundings getting dark. I know that 48 percent sounds like a lot. Not to cast a shadow on things, but likening a partial eclipse to a total eclipse is like comparing almost dying to dying. And that’s from the northern tip of Maine.ĩ. In fact, if you have clear skies on eclipse day, the Moon will cover at least 48 percent of the Sun’s surface. They occur at the same node, the Moon’s distance from Earth is nearly the same, and they happen at the same time of year.Ĩ. ![]() Two eclipses separated by one Saros cycle are similar. Scientists call this length of time a Saros cycle. Similar solar and lunar eclipses recur every 6,585.3 days (18 years, 11 days, 8 hours). Solar eclipses occur between Saros cycles. Here’s an example: If the Moon covers half the Sun’s diameter (in this case the magnitude equals 50 percent), the amount of obscuration (the area of the Sun’s disk the Moon blots out) will be 39.1 percent.ħ. The obscuration is the percent of the Sun’s total surface area covered at maximum. The magnitude of a solar eclipse is the percent of the Sun’s diameter that the Moon covers during maximum eclipse. Astronomers categorize each solar eclipse in terms of its magnitude and obscuration, and I don’t want you to be confused when you encounter these terms. It’s all about magnitude and obscuration. The result is that the Moon’s apparent diameter can range from 7 percent larger to 10 percent smaller than the Sun.Ħ. The Earth-Sun distance varies by 3 percent and the Moon-Earth distance by 12 percent. The reason the total phases of solar eclipses vary in time is because Earth is not always at the same distance from the Sun and the Moon is not always the same distance from Earth. Eclipse totalities are different lengths. During most (lunar) months, the Sun lies either above or below one of the nodes, and no eclipse happens.ĥ. Eclipses only occur when the Sun lies at one node and the Moon is at its New (for solar eclipses) or Full (for lunar eclipses) phase. Astronomers call the two intersections of these paths nodes. The reason is that the Moon’s orbit tilts 5° to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Solar eclipses don’t happen at every New Moon. The only lunar phase when that happens is New Moon.Ĥ. The Moon has to be between the Sun and Earth for a solar eclipse to occur. If you’re in the light part (the penumbra), you’ll see a partial eclipse.ģ. If you’re in the dark part of that shadow (the umbra), you’ll see a total eclipse. The Moon, directly between the Sun and Earth, casts a shadow on our planet. A solar eclipse is a lineup of the Sun, the Moon, and Earth. Before that one, you have to go back to March 7, 1970.Ģ. Unfortunately, not many people saw it because it clipped just five states in the Northwest and the weather for the most part was bleak. This will be the first total solar eclipse in the continental U.S. Hey, it’s never too early for knowledge, right? Anyway, these are the facts.ġ. But it’s going to be so huge that I thought I’d list some of the important details for our readership, the general public, and the media. As I write this blog, I realize that the event is more than a year away.
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