North America to Experience Breathtaking Naked-Eye View in 300 Days

A total solar eclipse is one of the rarest and most beautiful natural events on the planet, and it’s once again coming to North America in just 300 days. Are you ready? Witnessing the moon perfectly block the sun is an unforgettable experience that hasn’t been seen in this part of the world for around 375 years on average. Lucky places in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada will experience totality, wherein the sun’s corona, or the whispy white outer atmosphere, becomes visible against a deep twilight’s backdrop.

Totality is Coming

On Monday, April 8, 2024, at 11:07 a.m. MST, Mazatlán on Mexico’s Pacific coast will witness totality for over four minutes as the moon perfectly blocks all of the sun’s light. It’s safe to witness the explosion-like solar prominences taller than our planet around the sun’s edge but just for a few minutes during totality. Custom solar eclipse glasses and solar filters can be used to watch the partial solar eclipse. This phenomenon will be visible across the entire continent, but experiencing a long totality of up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds is only possible for the ones inside the 100-123 mile-wide path across these states:

• Mexico: Sinaloa, Durango, and Coahuila
• U.S: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine
• Canada: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland

‘90% Totality’ is a Fiction

If you’re not within the path of totality, you won’t experience totality, and there is no such thing as 90% totality or 99% totality. You either witness totality or not, and it can be a matter of standing a mile on the wrong side of the path’s limit. So, getting as close to the center of the path as possible will let you experience the maximum totality. At the last total solar eclipse in North America, the original Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017, 12 million people lived within the path. This time, 32 million people might witness it within the path. The next total solar eclipses will happen in Alaska on March 30, 2033, and in Canada and into Montana and the Dakotas on August 23, 2044. The biggest one is yet to come on August 12, 2045, when 6 minutes and 4 seconds totality will rip across the U.S. from Northern California to Florida and on its way to the Caribbean and South America.

Author of “The Complete Guide To The Great North American Eclipse of April 8, 2024” and editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.