Mark Monday, April 8, 2024, on your calendar as "Solar Eclipse Day," for if the weather is fair, you should have no difficulty observing a partial eclipse of the sun from much of North America. This celestial event will be associated with a spectacular total eclipse in a narrow zone of the southern and eastern United States, in which the moon completely blocks out the disk of the sun. Truly, a "bucket list" event!
Meanwhile, viewers about 2,600 miles (4,200 km) on either side of the totality path will get a partial eclipse, with the moon initially making a slight dent in the sun's edge. The dent is the silhouette of the moon's limb, and in a properly filtered telescope, lunar mountains can be seen to roughen its curve. As the minutes pass, the dent slowly grows and deepens to turn the sun into a crescent. In a partial eclipse, the indentation appears to swing around the sun's limb, moving roughly from west to east.
You can watch the total solar eclipse live here on Space.com. And keep up with all the actions with our total solar eclipse 2024 live updates blog.
