When you purchase through link on our land site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
When the moon ’s central shadow backwash at more than 1,500 mph ( 2,400 km / h ) across North America onApril 8 to cause a total solar eclipse , the resulting spectacle will be both unparalleled and part of a progressing cycle .
Thispath of totality(the path of the synodic month ’s dark darkness across the face of the Earth ) will be narrow-minded , at just 115 mile ( 185 kilometers ) wide , and it will cross parts of Mexico , the U.S. and Canada in a never - to - be - reprise route across the continent , live on just100 moment . Only from within that path will TV audience experience darkness during the daytime , dropping temperatures andnocturnal animal behavior — and only from within that path will it be potential to look at the totally eclipsed sun ’s beautiful corona with the naked oculus . ( Note : DO NOT look immediately at the Dominicus at any time other than totality without wearing a dyad ofcertified solar eclipse glasses . )
April 8’s total solar eclipse is inextricably linked to one in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada on 15 March 2025, seen here..
For most of the 40 million multitude live in the itinerary of totality , it will be a once - in - a - lifetime event , but solar eclipse are the product of a long - full term figure that recapitulate on far bragging timescales than human life .
Related : April 8 total solar eclipse : The estimable places to stargaze near the way of integrality
All solar eclipses come in families call Saros . Every 223 moon — orbits ofthe moonaround Earth — a penny-pinching - very moon phantasm is projected onto Earth ’s surface to cause an eclipse . That works out to 6,585.3 day , or 18 twelvemonth , 11 days , 8 hours , according toNASA .
Saros 139 is a family of eclipses that currently repeats every 54 years in North America.
That eight hours is critical . It mean that three solar eclipses following each other in the same Saros occur a third of the way around the globe . The totalsolar eclipseon April 8 is part ofSaros 139 , which was responsible for a total solar occultation across Africa 18 years , 11 days , 8 hours earlier , onMarch 29 , 2006 . exactly 18 geezerhood , 11 days , 8 hour after April 8 , 2024 — on April 20 , 2042 — the same Saros will make a full solar eclipse in Asia .
Those eight hr , however , assure that a similar path of totality will revisit the same part of the earth every quaternary repetition . This period of on the nose 669 synodic month — or 54 years , 33 Day — is called the exeligmos .
So the same celestial mechanics that will have the total solar occultation on April 8 produced a total solar occultation in North America onMarch 7 , 1970 . That path of sum occurred slimly to the east , throwing Mexico , the U.S. ( Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina and Massachusetts ) and Canada ( Nova Scotia and Newfoundland ) under the moon ’s shadow . After April 8 , it will next visit North America again onMay 11 , 2078 , when Mexico and the U.S. ( Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama , Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina and Virginia ) will experience totality .
— April 8 solar eclipse : What will happen during aggregate ?
— Where to buy your solar occultation glass before the April 8 aggregate eclipse
— April 8 solar eclipse : What is the track of totality , and where ’s the best spot to take in ?
But Saros do not last forever ; across the centuries , they rise and descend across Earth ’s surface , eventually skipping off into space . Saros 139 has been give rise solar eclipses since 1501 and will do so until 2763 , but it will top out onJuly 16 , 2186 , when it will give rise a totality lasting 7 min , 29 seconds — the long entire eclipsein 10,000 years , and until at least the year 6000 .
