Solar Eclipse 2024
Solar Eclipse Background: A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially.
In a total eclipse the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon.
In partial only part of the Sun is obscured. In an Annular eclipse, the Moon is far enough from the Earth such that it does not completely cover the Sun. Unlike a lunar eclipse, which may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth,
a solar eclipse can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world.
As such, although total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth every 18 months on average, they recur at any given place only once every 360 to 410 years.
If the Moon were in a perfectly circular orbit and in the same orbital plane as Earth, there would be total solar eclipses once a month, at every new moon.
Instead, because the Moon's orbit is tilted at about 5 degrees to Earth's orbit, its shadow usually misses Earth. Solar (and lunar) eclipses therefore happen only during eclipse seasons, resulting in at least two,
and up to five, solar eclipses each year, no more than two of which can be total.
Total eclipses are more rare because they require a more precise alignment between the centers of the Sun and Moon, and because the Moon's apparent size in the sky is sometimes too small to fully cover the Sun.
In some ancient and modern cultures, solar eclipses were attributed to supernatural causes or regarded as bad omens.
Astronomers' predictions of eclipses began in China as early as the 4th century BC; eclipses hundreds of years into the future may now be predicted with high accuracy.
Description: On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse came to North America. All of North America and Central America experienced a partial solar eclipse but only those within the path of totality — an approximately 115-mile (185-kilometer) wide route through Mexico, 15 U.S. States and Canada — were able to see the moon entirely cover the sun's diskA total solar eclipse to visited North America on April 8, 2024. The duration of totality was up to 4 minutes and 27 seconds, almost double that of The Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017. It came less than six months after the Oct. 14, 2023, 'ring of fire' annular solar eclipse in eight states in the U.S. Southwest In the US, totality began in Texas at 1:27 pm CDT and ended in Maine at 3:35 pm EDT on April 8, 2024.
Solar Eclipse Corona
Solar Eclipse Flares
Solar Eclipse Diamond Ring
Solar Eclipse Video
Click to Return to Home Page