Solar Eclipse

The solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, was a total solar eclipse visible within a band covering parts of North America, from Mexico to Canada and crossing the contiguous United States. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the Sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight. Totality occurs only in a limited path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a larger surrounding region.

One day after perigee on April 7, 2024, the Moon's apparent diameter was 5.5% larger than average. With a magnitude of 1.0566, the eclipse's longest duration of totality was 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds just 4 mi (6 km) north of the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango.

This eclipse was the first total solar eclipse visible from Canada since February 26, 1979;[1][2] the first over Mexico since July 11, 1991;[3] and the first over the United States since August 21, 2017. No other solar eclipse in the 21st century will be totally visible from all three countries.[4] The next total solar eclipse in the US will be on March 30, 2033, which will pass over Alaska; the next total eclipse in the lower 48 states of the US will be on August 23, 2044; and the next total eclipse of similar width will take place on August 12, 2045 (traversing coast-to-coast similar to the 2017 eclipse).

The final solar eclipse of the year will occur on October 2, 2024.

Visibility

Animation of the eclipse path (including the path of totality)

The totality of the solar eclipse was visible in a strip from the Pacific Ocean 230 miles (370 km) north of the Marquesas Islands and later 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.[5]

Mexico

In Mexico, totality passed through the states of Sinaloa (including Mazatlán), Durango (including the city of Durango and Gómez Palacio), and Coahuila (including Torreón, Matamoros, Monclova, Sabinas, Ciudad Acuña, and Piedras Negras).[6][7]

A partial eclipse was visible across the remainder of the country, including 79% coverage of the solar disc in Mexico City.[8]

United States

In the United States, totality was visible through the states of Texas (including parts of San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth and all of Arlington, Dallas, Killeen, Temple, Texarkana, Tyler, Sulphur Springs, and Waco), Oklahoma (including Idabel and Broken Bow), Arkansas (including Morrilton/Petit Jean, Hot Springs, Searcy, Jonesboro, and Little Rock), Missouri (including Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff), Tennessee (extreme northwestern corner of Lake County), Illinois (including Carbondale, where it intersects the path of the 2017 eclipse), Kentucky, Indiana (including Bloomington, Evansville, Indianapolis, Anderson, Muncie, Terre Haute, and Vincennes), Ohio (including Akron, Cleveland, Dayton, Lima, Lorain, Toledo, and Warren), Michigan (extreme southeastern corner of Monroe County), Pennsylvania (including Erie), Upstate New York (including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown, the Adirondacks, Potsdam, and Plattsburgh), northern Vermont (including Burlington), New Hampshire, and Maine,[9][10] with the line of totality going almost directly over the state's highest point Mount Katahdin. The largest city that was entirely in the path was Dallas, Texas.[11] It was the second total eclipse visible from the central United States in just seven years, after the eclipse of August 21, 2017. It was the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.[12]

A partial solar eclipse was visible in all of the other parts of the contiguous United States, Hawaii, and southeast Alaska (Alaska Panhandle).

Delta Air Lines scheduled two special eclipse-following flights: one from Austin to Detroit on a large-window A220-300, and one from Dallas to Detroit.[13] Various other flights in the path of totality also avoided cloud cover entirely.[14]

Canada

In Canada, totality was visible through parts of Southern Ontario (including Leamington, Fort Erie,[15] Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Kingston, Prince Edward County, and Cornwall),[16] parts of southern Quebec (including Montreal, Sherbrooke, Saint-Georges, and Lac-Mégantic), central New Brunswick (including Fredericton, Woodstock and Miramichi),[17] western Prince Edward Island (including Tignish and Summerside),[18][19] the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia,[20] and central Newfoundland (including Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor). Then, it ended on the eastern Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.[21] Windsor, London, Toronto, and Ottawa lay just north of the path of totality, and Moncton just south of it.

A partial solar eclipse was visible in all of the other parts of Canada, except the western part of Yukon and the western tip of the Northwest Territories.

Europe

A partial eclipse was seen in Svalbard (Norway), Iceland, Ireland, western parts of the United Kingdom, north-western parts of Spain and Portugal and the Azores, and the Canary Islands.[22] Unusually, this eclipse extended below the horizon, where the greatest phase was observed at mid-nautical twilight in Galicia (Spain) and the beginning of astronomical twilight in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France).[23] The extension of the eclipse path within the twilight zone created what was likely the best observation window for the 12P/Pons–Brooks comet located closely to Jupiter.[24]

Central America and South America

The partial eclipse was seen in all Central American countries, from Belize to Panama, all the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica), and northern South America (Colombia).

Oceania

The partial eclipse was seen in Hawaii, eastern Kiribati (the eastern Phoenix Islands and the whole Line Islands), Tokelau, American Samoa except for its extreme western part, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and the Pitcairn Islands. Although all located east of the 180th meridian, the local time of the eclipse in Kiribati and Tokelau was Tuesday, April 9, 2024, because either UTC+13 or UTC+14 is observed in these areas.