March 29 2024 update:
With the eclipse just ten days away, I’ve written one last article to get you excited for Eclipse Day: Go see the Total Eclipse of the Sun
Let’s take a look into the future, 8 years into the future!
Nope, I’m not kidding, please open your calendars and mark April 8th 2024 as ‘Eclipse Day’.
I’ve talked about eclipses on this blog before. Total lunar eclipses are nice, partial solar eclipses are fun too, but the eclipse of 2024 will be a Total Solar Eclipse, the absolute best kind of eclipse possible, and it’s coming to Newfoundland!
For those of you who haven’t seen a TSE before, this will most likely be a once in a lifetime experience, you don’t want to miss it! The last time a TSE swept over Newfoundland was way back in 1970, and the next time (after 2024) will be in the year 2079…
If you’re in St. John’s on April 8th 2024, the eclipse will be 99% complete, which may sound good enough but believe me it’s nothing compared to the real show: the 100% TSE that will sweep across the island from Port aux Basques to Bonavista over the ‘Path of Totality’:
Total Solar Eclipse is visible between the blue lines
If that 1% difference does not seem important to you, think of it as the difference between almost winning the lottery and actually winning the lottery, a huge difference!
On Eclipse Day you’ll want to be somewhere between the blue lines and as close to the red line as possible. In Newfoundland that means being near Bonavista, Terra Nova National Park, the Codroy Valley, or anywhere in between. The duration of the eclipse will be roughly 3 minutes if you’re anywhere near the red line, and it will be slightly longer the further you are out West.
If the weather allows it, this eclipse will be an amazing spectacle! Have you marked your calendar yet?
Learn more about this 2024 eclipse at NASA, or use the nice map with local times at the Time and Date eclipse website.
(Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC)
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