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On the big day, make sure you’re mobile, via your own vehicle or a rental. There’s variations of this rule, based on the elliptical orbits of the Earth and the moon, and that variation accounts for eclipses that aren’t total - sometimes the moon’s disk is smaller than the sun’s, and sometimes it’s larger. The sun’s disk is exactly 400 times larger than the moon’s, but it’s also 400 times farther away. Total eclipses occur because of a single, pretty unbelievable coincidence: the apparent size of the moon in the sky precisely equals that of the sun. You’ll be able to make it an adventure by getting reasonably close and then heading to the shadow’s path on August 21. Worst case, you can just drive to a good region and bring camping gear or find accommodations within a few hours’ drive. Once you have your region chosen, start looking for hotels, booking flights, and reserving cars or RV’s soon, because they’re already going fast. The best prospects are northern Oregon, Idaho, central Wyoming and western Nebraska.
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Charts at Eclipser (published by Jay Anderson) will give you a good general overview. Next, you’ll want to gauge cloud cover along the path, initially based on historical data for the region you have your eye on, and then again in the days leading up to the event. There will be 2,500 miles of opportunity as the Moon’s circular shadow glides from sea to shining sea in just 90 minutes. That’s your starting point for planning your viewing. So double-check your location rests on the centerline. For an hour or so before totality, the eclipse will be partial.) But every mile you stray from the centerline reduces that time significantly, such that viewers at the edge of the shadow’s path, only 15 to 35 miles away, will experience barely 10, 20 or 30 seconds of totality. (Totality refers to the complete blockage of the sun. If you’re along the centerline of that shadow, you’ll have between 2 minutes and 2 minutes, 40 seconds of totality. The width of the umbral shadow - that is, the moon’s circular shadow on the Earth’s surface, and the region that will experience the total eclipse (as opposed to the partial eclipse experienced by the rest of the continent) - ranges from only 35 to 71 miles wide during this eclipse. Watchers’ greatest challenges will be choosing a spot with a low likelihood of cloud cover, and making sure you’re as close to the shadow’s centerline as possible. So You’re Gonna Give This Celestial Spectacle a Chance? I’ve seen two myself, one in Australia in 2012 and the other in the Faroe Islands this past March, and each experience was an adventure capped by a sublime, moving bit of celestial showmanship. If you’re not convinced, just think of the buzz solar eclipses achieve when they occur elsewhere on the globe - amateur astro-geeks and hardcore eclipse-chasers travel to remote parts of the world to see them, locals snatch up protective eclipse shades like they’re candy, and each one makes news globally. During totality, the entire sky is a dynamic light show with qualities of light you’ve never seen before.” “The corona is the sun’s constantly changing atmosphere and is filled with streamers, loops, fans and explosive prominences. “Total solar eclipses are simply the most amazing natural sight that you can see,” says Michael Zeiler, a writer, illustrator and cartographer who’s logged seven eclipses and is the publisher, with his wife Polly, of the leading website for the 2017 event, (a great additional resource is ). Think the recent SuperBloodMoon lunar eclipse was cool? This will make your gyroscope wobble. It’ll be a spectacular light show - and the first visible from the contiguous United States since 1979. For two minutes and change, the moon will completely blot out the sun, causing the sky to darken, stars to emerge, and the sun’s shimmery, iridescent coronal atmosphere to flare to life before your eyes. On that future Monday, a total solar eclipse will rip straight across the United States, from Oregon, all the way to Charleston, South Carolina. Music videos will be filmed on location, memes will be born, and while some hearts will swell, others will undoubtedly be broken.īut you - reading this, now - you’ll be prepared when the eclipse rolls into town. Crowds from coast to coast will scramble into position.