July’s full Buck Moon, the second full moon of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, will turn full on Wednesday (July 29). It will be the final full moon before a flurry of solar and lunar activity — notably, a total solar eclipse caused by the new moon on August 12, and a partial lunar eclipse during the following full moon on August 28.

Named for the new antlers that emerge from male deer during summer, July’s full moon is also known as the Thunder Moon and Hay Moon, according to Time and Date. The Anishinaabeg people call it Miin Giizis, or Berry Moon, according to the Center for Native American Studies.

The Buck Moon will be at its fullest at 10:37 a.m. EDT on Wednesday — however, it will also look bright and full on Tuesday and Thursday night. From North America, the best time to see it will be at moonrise in the southeast during dusk on Wednesday evening. The exact time of moonrise will depend on your location. A full moon looks most dramatic as it first appears above the eastern horizon shortly after sunset, with Rayleigh scattering making it loom orange — the same light-scattering phenomenon that makes the sky blue and sunsets red.

July's full moon is one of the lowest full moons of the year as seen from the Northern Hemisphere because it occurs relatively soon after the June solstice. A full moon always sits opposite the sun, so the path of July's full moon mirrors the sun's path in February.

You can easily enjoy the full moon with the naked eye, but a good backyard telescope or pair of stargazing binoculars can help you zoom in on famous structures, such as craters and Apollo landing sites. And if you want to take stunning photos of the moon, here’s everything you need to know.

Two weeks after theBuck Moon, the new moon will slide directly between Earth and the sun, causing a total solar eclipse. Observers along a narrow path of totality in eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain will see the moon block the sun for a few minutes, revealing the solar corona.

A deep partial solar eclipse will be visible across Europe, with a small partial solar eclipse observed over Canada and the northeastern U.S.. The largest eclipse in Canada will be 93% in northeastern Nunavut, while northeastern Maine in the U.S. will see 29% of the sun covered by the moon. Solar eclipse glasses must be worn at all times to safely view the partial phases.

The next full moon, the Sturgeon Moon, will rise on August 27 and be partially eclipsed by Earth overnight. More than 96% of the moon will pass into Earth's shadow as seen from Europe, Africa, North America and South America.

How much do you know about the moon? Test your lunar smarts with our moon quiz!

The total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026, will bring thousands of photographers to a narrow path of totality through eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. For many, it will be their first opportunity to witness totality, the brief period when the moon completely covers the sun and reveals its delicate corona, a wonder of nature that normally remains hidden by sunlight.

Some first-time eclipse chasers heading to the path of totality pack expensive gear they've never used before, hoping to capture expert-level images without any preparation. Others just take a smartphone. Guess who usually comes back with the best images? Practice and rehearsal — or simplicity — are key.

Remember, you should never look at the sun directly without specialist solar equipment (unless you are in totality), or you risk permanent damage to your sight.

Preparing for totality

Photographing a solar eclipse is unlike photographing anything else. Solar safety matters, exposure changes dramatically, and totality lasts only a few precious minutes. Despite that, memorable eclipse photographs can be taken with almost any camera. The best approach depends on your equipment, your experience and what kind of memory you want to bring home.

However, you don't need to stand in the path of totality to photograph some of the event. Across much of Europe, a deep partial eclipse will occur near sunset, with more than 90% of the sun obscured in many locations. In northeastern North America, observers will see a smaller partial eclipse during the afternoon. While neither experience matches the drama of totality, both offer opportunities for striking photography.

1. Take a souvenir shot through eclipse glasses

To watch any partial solar eclipse, you'll need a pair of eclipse glasses or solar viewers; the former you wear and the latter you look through. Either works well as a solar filter for a smartphone. Simply wrap some eclipse glasses around your phone's camera lens or hold a solar viewer in front, and you can take basic images of a partial eclipse.

The way to get more than just a rough souvenir shot is to put your smartphone on a tripod or purchase a Solar Snap, which not only provides a solar filter that attaches to your phone with Velcro but also includes an app that zooms in on the eclipse.

If you want pinpoint sharpness without having to spend too much or travel with much gear, get yourself a smart telescope like the ZWO SeeStar S30 Pro, DwarfLab Dwarf Mini or Vanois Vespera Pro.

2. Use a smartphone during totality

If you're traveling to Greenland, Iceland or Spain to see the total solar eclipse, take a simple smartphone photograph during totality. A smartphone cannot compete with a camera's zoom lens for close-up detail, but it's perfect for recording a wide view of the landscape you're in.

In Greenland and Iceland, the eclipsed sun will hang about 25 degrees above the western horizon, making it possible to include fjords, volcanic landscapes or distant mountains in the frame. In Spain, where totality occurs late in the day, the low altitude of the sun offers opportunities to photograph the eclipse above villages, church towers, castles and mountain ridges.

Before the eclipse, switch off auto-flash and enable RAW images if your phone offers them. Burst mode works well — as does filming the event in 4K from a tripod and extracting stills later.

3. Take a wide-angle shot during totality

Many photographers using a manual mirrorless or DSLR camera become obsessed with the corona and forget that the eclipse affects the entire environment. The resulting images often feel disconnected from the actual experience. A well-composed landscape photograph can communicate the atmosphere of totality far more effectively.

The image above was shot by expert eclipse photographer Alan Dyer, author of How to Capture the Coming Solar Eclipses, in Teton Valley, Wyoming, during the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse. It was shot with a Canon 6D and a 14mm SP Rokinon lens at f/25 for 1/10 second at ISO 100. It's one shot from a 700-frame time-lapse and was taken just as totality began, moments after the diamond ring ended, and the dark shadow of the moon is approaching from the west.

4. Capture crescent suns

When a partial solar eclipse reaches about 50% — something it will only do in extreme northeast Canada and Europe on Aug. 12, 2026 — it's possible to project crescent suns through anything with defined holes. It works really well through a colander or spaghetti spoon.

By projecting crescent suns onto the floor, the walls and people around you, unique portrait images of eclipse chasers can be created. Unlike photographs of the corona, which thousands of people will capture, photographs like this, which document the human experience of an eclipse, can be really special.

• Read: Astrotourism, dark-sky and Northern Lights travel essentials

5. Take a close-up of the solar corona

This is the classic eclipse photography setup and the one most commonly used by experienced eclipse chasers — though it demands some serious equipment, commitment and practice.

A camera fitted with a telephoto lens between 200mm and 600mm provides enough magnification to reveal detail in the corona while remaining portable enough for travel. At 400mm, the eclipsed sun fills a useful portion of the frame. At 600mm, the corona becomes significantly more prominent and fine detail begins to emerge. Lenses like the Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM, Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS and SIGMA 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sport would be good options.

Focus carefully on the partially eclipsed sun through a solar filter, and leave the focus untouched thereafter. With a camera set to ISO 100 and f/5-f/8 aperture, exposure bracketing is essential because the corona spans an enormous range of brightness. Automated exposure sequences, or bracketing, allow photographers to capture multiple exposure levels to combine later, if desired.

It's always best to rehearse in advance; the excitement of totality very often leads to basic errors — the classic being leaving the solar filter on during totality.

6. Shoot a close-up sequence of the eclipse

If you want to shoot a sequence throughout the entire solar eclipse that shows all of the various stages, you need to be in position, ready to take images as soon as first contact occurs, and stay there until fourth contact.

Since the size of the sun won't be huge in your finished image, you don't need a huge telephoto lens. Instead, concentrate on imaging the partial eclipse at very specific times before and after totality, so that you can produce a mirror image on either side of an image of the solar corona.

7. Shoot a wide-angle sequence of the eclipse

A wide-angle eclipse sequence is a different kind of image, showing not just the changing shape of the sun, but the landscape. Start with a base exposure taken during totality, when the eclipsed sun sits in a darkened twilight sky, then layer in the partial phases at regular intervals from first contact to fourth contact.

The result can show the sun's path across the sky, the moon appearing to bite across it in the opposite direction, and even bright planets nearby. It's a powerful way to tell the whole story of an eclipse in one frame, especially if you include water, mountains, people or a dramatic horizon.

Dyer's image above is a single exposure taken with a Canon EOS Ra and a Canon RF15-35mm lens at ISO 125, f/2.8 and 1/6s. The partial phases were photographed every five minutes from start to finish of the eclipse.

• Read: Best lenses for astrophotography 2026

While the new moon this Tuesday (Feb. 17) will pass without much fanfare in most of the world, something more exciting will be taking place over a sliver of Antarctica: a "ring of fire" solar eclipse, also known as an annular solar eclipse.

During an annular solar eclipse, the moon passes directly in front of the sun but appears too small in the sky to cover it completely. That’s because the moon is at its farthest point from Earth in its slightly elliptical orbit during these rare eclipses. On Feb. 17, 96% of the sun will be covered during the "ring of fire."

Observers within a narrow 383-mile-wide (616 kilometers) path will see a "ring of fire" — the glowing edge of the sun around the dark silhouette of the moon — for up to 2 minutes, 20 seconds.

However, few people will witness it. This eclipse is as remote as they come, with the eclipse's path passing over largely uninhabited terrain in the Antarctic interior.

"It's possible that only a few people will view this eclipse from within the annular zone," eclipse meteorologist Jay Anderson wrote on his website, Eclipsophile. "It's a challenge to reach, and there are only two inhabited locations within the annular shadow, neither of which is set up to welcome tourists. "At worst, a few dozen Russian researchers at Mirny and a small number of French/Italian inhabitants at Concordia [two research stations in Antarctica] will record the event for posterity."

An eclipse for scientists (and penguins)

At Mirny Station, on the Davis Sea coast, the "ring of fire" phase, called annularity, will last 1 minute, 52 seconds, according to Time and Date. Meanwhile, Concordia Station, which is jointly operated by France and Italy, will see the ring of fire for 2 minutes, 9 seconds. The latter location has a much better chance of clear skies, Time and Date adds.

The eclipse officially starts at 09:56 UTC (4:46 a.m. EST), when a partial eclipse will begin across Antarctica and parts of southeastern Africa. (Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius will see a 10% to 35% partial eclipse.) The annular phase takes place between 11:42 UTC and 12:41 UTC (6:42 to 7:42 a.m. EST), with the partial phases concluding by 14:27 UTC (2:27 p.m. EST).

Eclipses always come in pairs. With the alignment between the sun, the new moon and Earth precise enough to cause an annular solar eclipse on Feb. 17, a lunar eclipse is inevitable during the next new moon. On March 3, a total lunar eclipse will be visible from East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, parts of the Pacific Ocean and western North America.

The next annular solar eclipse will occur on Feb. 6, 2027, when a "ring of fire" will be visible for up to 7 minutes, 51 seconds from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, according to Time and Date.

The second full moon of 2026, February's Snow Moon, will rise Sunday (Feb. 1) alongside one of the most beautiful open star clusters in the night sky.

The moon will be officially full at 5:09 p.m. EST on Feb. 1 and will be best seen at dusk at moonrise where you are. It will be in the constellation Leo, hanging below the Beehive Cluster. The moon will also appear bright and full on Feb. 2.

The best way to see the full moon rise is to find an elevated location or an open space with a clear view of the eastern horizon. Although you can easily view a full moon with the naked eye, a pair of binoculars or a good backyard telescope will reveal the Beehive Cluster's 100-plus stars. Also called M44 and NGC 2632, it's one of the brightest open clusters and, at 577 light-years, one of the closest to the solar system.

You'll find the Beehive Cluster halfway between the bright stars Pollux in the constellation Gemini (to the top right of the moon) and Regulus in the constellation Leo (to the bottom left of the moon). Regulus will be easiest to see about an hour after the moon rises, as will the other stars of Leo.

If you look up on Feb. 2, it will be possible to watch Regulus be occulted (appear to vanish) by the near-full moon for an hour or so as seen from parts of North America — a rare event that won't be repeated until the late 2030s.

February's full moon is also known as the Hungry Moon, Storm Moon and Candles Moon, according to NASA. Per the Old Farmer's Almanac, other names for February's full moon include the Bald Eagle Moon or Eagle Moon (the Cree), Bear Moon (the Ojibwe), Black Bear Moon (the Tlingit), Raccoon Moon (the Dakota), Groundhog Moon (the Algonquin) and Goose Moon (the Haida).

Next comes the new moon, on Tuesday, Feb. 17, which will cause a rare annular solar eclipse — often called a "ring of fire," as just the center of the sun's visible surface is blocked by the moon — seen only from Antarctica.

The next full moon, the Worm Moon, will rise on March 3. This one will be extra special because it will be a total lunar eclipse. During this spectacular event, colloquially called a "blood moon," the lunar surface will turn a reddish-copper color for 58 minutes as seen from North America, the Pacific, Australia and East Asia.

This Sunday night (Sept. 7-8), Earth will pass directly between the sun and the full Corn Moon to trigger the year's second and final total lunar eclipse.

Spanning more than five hours, the celestial event will peak with an impressive 82-minute totality phase, when Earth's massive inner shadow will plunge the moon's entire near side into a reddish darkness — earning it the eerie nickname "blood moon."

Sadly, unlike this year's previous blood moon lunar eclipse on March 13-14, viewers in the United States will not be invited to the show. By the time the eclipse begins at 11:28 a.m. EDT (15:28 UTC), the full moon will already have set over North and South America, cutting most of the Western Hemisphere out of the event, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.

Instead, the eclipse will be best seen from Asia and Western Australia, where more than 6 billion people (nearly 77% of the world's population) will be privy to the entire total phase of the eclipse, according to Time and Date. Skywatchers in most of Europe and Africa will be able to catch at least part of totality, which ends at 20:55 UTC globally, and most of the partial phase that follows it as the moon sneaks back out of Earth's shadow.

How to live stream the lunar eclipse

Skywatchers in North America who want to catch the blood moon in real time aren't totally out of luck, however. A free livestream of the event, courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, has been set for Sept. 7. The stream begins at 1:45 p.m. EDT (17:45 UTC), shortly after moonrise in Italy. The moon will rise partially eclipsed and will reach totality roughly 45 minutes later, according to Time and Date's eclipse map tool.

You can watch the entire stream on the Virtual Telescope Project's official YouTube page or via the video embedded below.

Why do 'blood moon' eclipses happen?

Total lunar eclipses always occur during the full moon, when the moon, Earth and the sun line up in a row. Once perfectly aligned, the innermost and darkest part of Earth's shadow — the umbra — falls across the visible surface of the moon, blotting out the sun's light.

The moon appears red during this phase thanks to a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering, in which particles in Earth's atmosphere preferentially scatter different wavelengths of light.

As incoming sunlight curves around Earth's perimeter, atmospheric particles scatter shorter-wavelength blue light while allowing longer-wavelength red light to pass through and strike the moon's surface, Live Science previously reported, giving the appearance of a "blood moon."

As is always the case on Earth, a solar eclipse will follow two weeks after its lunar counterpart. On Sept. 21, a partial solar eclipse will be visible from parts of New Zealand, Australia and Antarctica, with up to 80% of the sun's disk blocked by the moon during the peak. Several Pacific islands — including Fiji, Tonga and Samoa — will see a slimmer eclipse, with less than 30% of the sun's disk covered.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 10:45 a.m. EDT on Sept. 5 to include new information about the weekend's total lunar eclipse.

An Earth-orbiting spacecraft just experienced an unusual phenomenon: a lunar transit and an Earth eclipse on the same day.

On July 25, at different times, both the moon and Earth passed between NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the sun.

SDO studies the sun's activity, including the solar wind (the stream of charged particles flowing from the sun), solar flares and changes in the sun's magnetic field. These data help scientists forecast solar activity that can affect Earth. The spacecraft launched in February 2010 and has been observing the sun almost continuously since May of that year.

To keep a constant eye on the sun, SDO is in a geosynchronous orbit around Earth, meaning it circles the planet once every day. The plane of its orbit is angled relative to Earth's rotational axis, which keeps the planet out of the way of its observations. This means the spacecraft usually has a view of the sun.

But occasionally, the moon blocks that view. Several times per year, the moon partially eclipses the sun from SDO's perspective. The July 25 lunar transit, which began around 2:45 UTC, was SDO's fourth partial eclipse since April, according to SDO's blog. It was also the deepest, covering up to 62% of the sun's disk and lasting about 50 minutes.

Earth also occasionally passes between SDO and the sun. SDO's orbit is designed to minimize these interruptions to the craft's regular observations, but roughly twice per year, Earth blocks out the sun for a short period each day. Each of these "eclipse seasons" lasts around three weeks, according to NASA. SDO is in the midst of its 31st eclipse season, which began July 10 and will last until Aug. 7.

Beginning around 6:30 UTC, about three hours after the moon finished its transit, Earth completely blocked SDO's view of the sun. The total eclipse ended shortly before 8:00 UTC, according to the Solar Dynamics Observatory blog.

The two events look a bit different in SDO's images of the sun. Because Earth's atmosphere absorbs some sunlight, its shadow has a fuzzy edge. Meanwhile, the moon, which has no atmosphere, carves a crisp circle out of the sun's disk.

This isn't the first time both Earth and the moon have gotten in SDO's way on the same day. In 2015 — and again in 2016 — both bodies eclipsed the sun from SDO's perspective at the same time, resulting in a "double eclipse."

Earth-bound eclipse spotters will have to wait a few more weeks to catch the next event. A partial solar eclipse will be visible from New Zealand and parts of Australia on Sept. 21. The next total solar eclipse — which will be visible from parts of Greenland, Iceland, Russia, Spain and Portugal — will occur on Aug. 12, 2026.

Sun quiz: How well do you know our home star?

Total solar eclipses are rare, but exactly how rare is now up for debate after the European Space Agency debuted the first images today (June 16) from two new satellites that together operate as an "eclipse machine."

Total solar eclipses currently occur 14 times every 18 years and 11 days somewhere on Earth, which is one every 16 months, on average. According to NASA, they occur once every 366 years in any specific place.

Requiring neither lucky geography nor patience, the European Space Agency (ESA) Proba-3 mission, which launched on a PSLV-XL rocket from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Dec. 5, 2024, has just sent back its first images that are sure to impress eclipse chasers across the world. The mission is the first to see two satellites orbit in a "precision formation," with one acting as the moon to eclipse the sun in front of the other, which points a telescope at the sun to capture its elusive corona.

A decade in the making, these first images — from the mission's first successful formation flying demo on May 23 — are a glimpse of what's to come.

The sun's corona

The solar corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, is a mystery. The sun's photosphere, its surface, is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius), but the corona is two million degrees Fahrenheit (over 1,1 million degrees C) — about 200 times hotter. Scientists need to know why and how this is the case, mainly because the corona is where the solar wind is generated.

"As well as being an amazing thing to see, the corona is also a laboratory for plasma physics and the main source of space weather," said Andrei Zhukov, Principal Investigator for the Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, speaking at the Solar Eclipse Conference in Leuven, Belgium.

Capturing a prominence

Observations of the corona are crucial to understanding phenomena such as solar wind and coronal mass ejections, which can disrupt Earth's power and communication systems and produce spectacular displays of the northern lights. However, Proba-3's images will also help solar physicists see features in the corona that are sometimes visible to observers of total solar eclipses. "Sometimes, clouds of relatively cold plasma are observed near the sun, creating what we call a prominence," said Zhukov. Prominences are much colder than the surrounding million-degree hot plasma in the corona, though still around 10,000 degrees Celsius. "We are very happy to have been able to capture one such structure in one of the first ASPIICS images," said Zhukov.

Coronagraphs in space

But there's a problem. The sun's disk is a million times brighter than the corona and completely overwhelms the human eye. The only time the corona can be seen is during a total solar eclipse. "They're inconvenient, they're rare and last only a few minutes," said Zhukov."The last total solar eclipse in Belgium was in 1406, and the next is in 2090. That's why we have coronagraphs."

A coronagraph is a device attached to a telescope that blocks out the direct light from a star — in this case, the sun — so that whatever is around it can be seen. Sometimes it's exoplanets. In this case, it's the corona. Unfortunately, Earth's atmosphere scatters that light. In short, they work much better in space. "Current coronagraphs are no match for Proba-3, which will observe the sun's corona down almost to the edge of the solar surface," says Jorge Amaya, Space Weather Modelling Coordinator at ESA. "So far, this was only possible during natural solar eclipses."

Proba-3's first images

In March, Proba-3's two spacecraft — the Coronagraph satellite and the Occulter satellite — aligned 500 feet (150 meters) apart with millimeter accuracy for several hours without ground intervention. The Occulter successfully blocked the sun's disk to cast a shadow onto ASPIICS — the coronagraph's sensitive optical instrument that captures the corona. "Having two spacecraft form one giant coronagraph in space allowed us to capture the inner corona with very low levels of stray light in our observations, exactly as we expected," said Damien Galano, Proba-3 mission manager. "I was absolutely thrilled to see the images, especially since we got them on the first try," said Zhukov. "It's just a teaser because we are still in the commissioning phase."

How Proba-3's images are created

The images themselves were processed by scientists and engineers at the ASPIICS Science Operations Centre at the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Each complete image — covering the area from the occulted sun to the edge of the field of view — is constructed from three images. "The difference between those is only the exposure time, which determines how long the coronagraph's aperture is exposed to light. Combining the three images gives us the full view of the corona," said Zhukov. "Our 'artificial eclipse' images are comparable with those taken during a natural eclipse — the difference is that we can create our eclipse once every 19.6-hour orbit."

Proba-3 will create about 1,000 hours of images of the corona over its two-year mission — and anyone will be able to download the data. "We have an open data policy — the uncalibrated data will be published immediately so everyone will be able to calibrate their own data," said Zhukov.

Proba-3's orbit

The solar-powered Proba-3 satellites have an elliptical orbit with a perigee (closest point) of 373 miles (600 kilometers) and an apogee of 37,000 miles (60,000 kilometers). They only fly in formation when close to apogee because that's when Earth's gravity, its magnetic field and atmospheric drag are at their weakest. That allows the satellites to use minimal propellant to attempt formation flying. The coronagraph satellite positions itself 492 feet (150 meters) behind the occulter satellite — two orders of magnitude farther than any other space-based coronagraph — with the formation flying performed down to a single millimeter in precision. The 4.4 feet (1.4 meters) occulter casts a 3.15 inch (8 centimeters) shadow onto the coronagraph. Remarkably, it's all done autonomously, with Proba standing for "Project for onboard autonomy".

"The precision achieved is extraordinary," said Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality. "It validates our years of technological development and positions ESA at the forefront of formation flying missions."

The first artificial solar eclipse

Proba-3 is not unique. A joint mission between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 saw the first coronal observation using formation flying, with the Apollo spacecraft acting as an improvised coronagraph, allowing the Soyuz crew to photograph the solar corona. "It was all done by hand — the image was taken through a window of a Soyuz spacecraft," said Zhukov. The results were disappointing, mainly because the thruster gases around the spacecraft scattered the light.

With Proba-3, the concept has become a reality, and artificial solar eclipses will be possible, revealing the inner solar corona without the need to wait for a total solar eclipse. Will that deter eclipse chasers? Absolutely not!

This article was originally published on Space.com.

The moon hovers over a shadowy void wreathed in sunlight in a stunning new photo taken by NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission on April 27.

PUNCH is a collection of four small satellites orbiting Earth with their instruments aimed at the sun. Launched on March 11, its goal is to study the solar wind — the stream of charged particles emanating from the sun and the cause of space weather. It will do so by taking pictures of the sun and the space between it and Earth.

To prepare for its science operations phase, PUNCH must go through commissioning — a phase of instrument testing and alignment. The image above was taken as part of the commissioning process. The dark, circular shadow is from the "occulter." The occulter is needed to prevent the sun's light from overwhelming the images, just like the moon blocks out the sun during a solar eclipse, revealing the delicate streamers and filaments that stretch from the sun's surface into the corona, the sun's outermost atmosphere.

The golden glow surrounding the sun is light reflecting off the occulter, and the dark areas at the top of the image are outside the instrument's field of view. The moon is illuminated by light reflected off Earth. Images collected during the mission's science operations will undergo more processing to remove the stray light and some small distortions left by contamination to reveal detailed images of the sun's corona.

Related: The sun just spat out the strongest solar flares of 2025 — and more could be headed toward Earth

Photos of the sun's corona can help scientists study the solar wind — the more than 300,000 tons (272,000 metric tons) of material the sun blasts into space every second at a million mph (1.6 million km/h), bathing the entire solar system in a feisty stew of charged particles. The solar wind is responsible for geomagnetic storms that, on Earth, can cause power grid failures and radio blackouts, and disrupt or damage satellites. Understanding the solar wind helps us prepare for geomagnetic storms so life on Earth can continue without disruption.

The photos PUNCH will take won't directly show the sun's volatile magnetic field. Instead, they'll show massive, glowing plasma loops and outbursts that are shaped by it. Patterns in the streamers and filaments emanating from the sun help researchers map out regions that are connected to the extreme space weather that causes geomagnetic storms on Earth. When combined with data collected within the sun's corona by the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), PUNCH's science will enable a much deeper understanding of the processes that drive the solar wind. This knowledge, in turn, can help protect the planet from geomagnetic storms.

"PSP and PUNCH are both working to unite two separate branches of heliophysics into a unified whole," PUNCH's principal investigator, Craig DeForest, told Live Science in an email. "PSP is carrying the techniques of space physics (in-situ sampling) inward to touch and measure the solar corona. PUNCH is extending the techniques of solar physics (scientific imaging) outward to measure how the solar corona touches us. The two missions complement each other beautifully."

PUNCH is scheduled to complete its commissioning phase June 9 and will start collecting new images of the sun and the area around it continuously. The data collected will be available to anyone who wishes to access it as part of PUNCH's commitment to open, inclusive science.

This striking satellite footage shows the moon's shadow racing across North America at more than 1,500 mph (2,400 km/h) during 2024's historic total solar eclipse, when several unique phenomena were observed as day briefly turned to night.

On April 8 last year, tens of millions of people in the U.S., Canada and Mexico looked up to the skies to see the moon temporarily block out our home star. During the event, totality — the period in which the sun is completely obscured — lasted up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds, depending on the viewer's location. This was the first total solar eclipse visible from the continent since 2017, but the longest totality there for 54 years.

From space, the darkest part of the moon's shadow, or umbra, slowly swept across the continent from western Mexico to eastern Canada over roughly 4 hours, allowing satellites and astronauts to snap some stunning shots of the event.

NOAA's 16th Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) was one of these orbital observers. This spacecraft is geostationary, meaning that it orbits Earth at the same speed as the planet spins, allowing it to watch one part of Earth from a fixed position. From its vantage point around 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) above North America, the satellite captured thousands of photos that were later digitally stitched together into the time-lapse video above.

Related: See all the best images of Earth from space

Photos from other spacecraft also provided alternative perspectives of the sweeping shadow.

NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captured video of the shadow moving across the globe from its position, roughly 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth. And astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) also snapped up-close photos of the shadow from around 260 miles (418 kilometers) above our planet's surface.

A unique event

Several strange phenomena can occur during a total solar eclipse, and 2024 was no exception.

Many observers spotted pink or red spots around the sun's obscured disc. Some people wrongly assumed that these were solar flares exploding from the sun. Experts later revealed that these were solar prominences — plasma plumes that tower above the sun but do not explode outward.

On the same day as the eclipse, astronomers also discovered a tiny sungrazer comet dive-bombing toward the sun. The newly spotted object was then photographed during totality, before it was destroyed by our home star just a few hours later.

One of the most bizarre effects observed was a subtle shift in global time signals sent and received by communication centers across North America as the sun's shadow cooled the upper atmosphere, slightly altering how radio signals bounced off this part of our planet. However, the changes were too small to impact any time-keeping devices.

Several other unusual things were seen during totality, including disappearing clouds, daytime-visible planets, changes to color perception and optical effects around the sun as seen from Earth, such as "Baily's beads" and "diamond rings." Some wild and captive animals also appeared to be confused as the skies turned dark.

The world's next total solar eclipse will occur on Aug. 12, 2026 and will be most visible from parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain.

Tomorrow (March 29), viewers in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including in 13 states in the northeastern U.S., will get the opportunity to witness a partial solar eclipse.

This phenomenon occurs when the moon passes between the sun and Earth and partially blocks the sun, making it look like a bite has been taken out of our nearest star.

But staring directly at the sun without certified eclipse glasses can lead to an eye condition known as solar retinopathy, which can cause permanent vision loss.

So what is solar retinopathy and how can you protect yourself against it?

Related: How to watch tomorrow's sunrise 'devil horn' solar eclipse online for free

What is solar retinopathy?

Solar retinopathy occurs when intense light causes damage to the light-sensitive tissue in the retina.

The retina detects light and converts it into signals that the brain translates into the images that you see. Despite its name, solar retinopathy can be caused by any intense light source, including the sun, a laser pointer or the bright light from a welding torch. Solar retinopathy can occur within seconds of exposure to intense light in one, or more often, both eyes.

Anyone who stares at the sun, even on a regular day, can get solar retinopathy, Dr. Julie Rosenthal, a clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Michigan, told Live Science. However, the eclipse is a time that those of us who don't weld or use lasers can easily get exposed to this kind of damage, she said.

People may be particularly vulnerable to solar retinopathy during a partial eclipse because the dark conditions caused by the sun being partly covered prevent the protective reflexes in the eye from properly kicking in, Live Science previously reported.

When it's light outside, for instance, people tend to squint their eyes while their pupils — which control how much light enters the eye — constrict to protect the retina, Dr. Sandra Montezuma, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota, told Live Science. However, when it's dark, the pupils dilate, allowing more light to enter the eye and potentially damage the retina, she said.

Typically, people will not feel the damage happening as they stare at the sun as there are no pain receptors in the retina.

What are the symptoms of solar retinopathy?

A common symptom of solar retinopathy is blurred vision, often with a big blurred spot in the middle of your field of vision. Patients may also have distorted vision, for example seeing straight lines as being curved or perceiving objects as smaller than they actually are.

Other symptoms include headaches and changes in color vision when color-sending cells are damaged. Solar retinopathy can also cause a blind spot in a patients' line of sight. People may also complain that their eyes feel watery or sore.

The longer and more directly you look at the sun, as well as the more often you do it, the greater the damage. Symptoms of solar retinopathy may take hours or days to emerge after injury.

An eye doctor can image the retina to diagnose solar retinopathy, and to determine how much damage has been done to your retina.

Is solar retinopathy treatable?

There is no treatment for solar retinopathy, however, the condition will improve for many people during the first six months after damage occurs, Dr. Rosenthal said. Nevertheless, even if a patients' symptoms and vision problems get better over time, many may still have a permanent dark spot or see some wavy lines in their vision, she added.

In some cases, the retina may be so severely damaged that it does not repair itself. This can leave patients with permanent vision loss.

How can you prevent solar retinopathy?

The best way to avoid solar retinopathy is to not look directly at the sun, Dr. Montezuma said.

However, if people still want to view the partial solar eclipse on March 29, then they should ensure that they are either wearing solar eclipse glasses that comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard, or using solar filters on skywatching equipment, she added. Solar filters are specialized filters that are added to equipment such as telescopes, binoculars or cameras that block sunlight.

If you don't have access to any of these things then another safe option is to just watch the partial eclipse online, Dr. Montezuma said.

"It's really a great time to be a part of science and to enjoy this cool phenomenon, but just make sure you're doing it safely," Dr. Rosenthal said.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

The sun will go partially dark tomorrow for millions of people as a partial solar eclipse blocks out a chunk of our star.

This astronomical phenomenon will fall on Saturday, March 29, 2025, and will be visible in 13 U.S. states, parts of northeastern Canada, and across much of western Europe and Africa. To help you find out if your location is in the path of the eclipse, NASA has now released a map revealing exactly how much of the sun will be eclipsed and where, and what time the eclipse begins in each region.

The East Coast of the U.S. and Canada will see the partial eclipse take over the largest portion of the sun, with 83% of the sun being blocked out in St John's in Canada, 64% in Portland, Maine, 43% in Boston, and 22% in New York City, according to NASA. With the sun rising partially eclipsed in these locations, the moon will make our star appear to have a pair of ‘devil horns’ in the dawn light.

On the NASA map, the yellow lines show the extent of how much sun will appear to be blocked out from each location, and the green lines track the time in UTC at which the eclipse will hit its peak.

In St. John’s, Canada, for example, the partial eclipse will begin at 6:57 a.m. local time, peak at 7:52 a.m., and end at 8:51 a.m. In Boston, it will start at 6:31 a.m. local time, peak at6:38 a.m. and end at7:07 a.m., while in New York City, it will start at 6:44 a.m., peak at 6:46 a.m., and end at 7:04 a.m. In these spots, the moon will already be partially blocking the sun as the two celestial bodies rise above the horizon in the morning.

In London, meanwhile, where the eclipse will cover a maximum of 31% of the sun, the eclipse will start at 10:07 a.m. local time, peak at 11:03 a.m., and end at 12:00 p.m.

Related: How to watch tomorrow's solar eclipse from anywhere on Earth

The orange loops on NASA's map represent areas where the eclipse starts or ends at sunrise and sunset: the left side of the western loop (over the Americas) will see the eclipse end at sunrise, while the right side of this loop will see the eclipse start at sunrise. Meanwhile, the blue line bisecting these loops show where the eclipse will hit its maximum at sunrise or sunset.

Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, blocking out the light from our star and casting a shadow on the Earth's surface. Unlike a total solar eclipse, where the sun is completely blocked in some areas, a partial eclipse results in the sun appearing as a crescent in the sky. This occurs because the alignment between the sun, moon, and Earth is not perfect.

How to watch the eclipse

According to timeanddate.com, over 800 million people will be able to catch at least some of the partial eclipse, although only 21 million will see the moon cover more than 50% of the sun. For everyone else, free live streams of the entire eclipse are being hosted on both sides of the Atlantic — Live Science has rounded up the best ones here.

Those hoping to catch a glimpse of the eclipse should never look at the sun directly without protection; even during a partial eclipse, the sun’s rays can cause serious eye damage. Observers should wear a pair of certified solar eclipse glasses at all times, or otherwise use a telescope or binoculars equipped with proper solar filters over the front lens.

"Do NOT look at the Sun through a camera lens, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device while wearing eclipse glasses or using a handheld solar viewer — the concentrated solar rays will burn through the filter and cause serious eye injury," NASA advises.

If you miss this partial eclipse, another partial eclipse will be visible from Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the Pacific Ocean on September 21 this year.

On August 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse will be visible in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and Portugal, while a partial eclipse will be visible in Europe, Africa, and North America.

Sun quiz: How well do you know our home star?

Tomorrow morning, the March 29 partial solar eclipse will finally be upon us!

Early on Saturday, the sun will rise partially eclipsed over 13 U.S. states and a broad swath of northeastern Canada. With the new moon covering up to 93% of the sun's visible surface, millions of people will have the opportunity to watch our star appear to grow a pair of "devil's horns" in the eerie dawn light.

But even if you're not in the immediate path of the eclipse — or if you don't have protective eyewear — you can still watch this rare phenomenon unfold in several free online live streams, which you can find right here on this page, courtesy of Timeanddate.com and the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Watch live: March 29 solar eclipse from North America

Beginning at 5:30 a.m. EDT, tomorrow, Timeanddate’s stream will show the partial eclipse transpire from a variety of angles and locations around the world. The precise time, duration and extent of the eclipse will be different depending on where in the world it's being observed from.

Related: What time does the March 29 solar eclipse start?

The live feed will feature images and videos of the eclipse as soon as the sun rises in North America, with prime views coming from St. John's — the capital city of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. If skies are clear, the "devil's horns" will appear prominently on the sun when the eclipse peaks at around 7:53 a.m. EDT, reaching 82% coverage of the solar disk, according to Timeanddate's eclipse map. The partial eclipse over Newfoundland will end an hour later.

Watch live: The view from Europe

Timeanddate's stream will also feature several views from across the Atlantic. These will include images from Siena, Italy, which will see a maximum eclipse of about 5% at noon local time; views from the towns of Kristiansand and Skibotn, Norway, where the sun will reach 30% and 37% obscuration, respectively; and a feed from the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London, U.K., where the eclipse will peak at around 11:03 a.m. local time with about 40% coverage.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich will also be hosting its own free live stream of the eclipse, beginning at 10 a.m. local time. For that midmorning view of the eclipse, you can watch the stream below.

If you're watching the live stream, you need nothing but your eyes (and probably a fresh cup of coffee). But if you do manage to see the partial eclipse in person, you MUST wear protective eyewear — such as certified solar eclipse glasses or a backyard telescope with solar filters — at all times, according to NASA. Unlike last year's total solar eclipse over North America, there will be no moment of totality (when the sun is completely covered by the moon) during Saturday's partial eclipse, so there is no safe time to remove your eclipse glasses.

After March 29, the next solar eclipse visible from North America will be a partial eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026. This eclipse will appear as a total solar eclipse in Spain, Iceland, Greenland, Russia and a small area of Portugal.

Sun quiz: How well do you know our home star?

The upcoming total solar eclipse takes place on Aug. 12 across Spain, Iceland and Greenland, with many parts of Europe, Africa, Eastern Canada and the Northeastern US being treated to a partial eclipse.

With so much on offer in the way of solar viewing equipment these days — from eclipse glasses to solar binoculars and telescopes — this guide features our top recommendations for making the most of solar viewing. You don’t want to fall into the many pitfalls of selecting the kit that’s right for you — whether that's choosing the wrong product or making sure your gear is safe to view the sun with.

• 🕶️ Solar eclipse glasses: See the eclipse safely for under $10
• 🔍 Solar binoculars: Save up to 40% on handheld views
• 🔭 Solar telescopes: For detailed solar views
• ☀️ Solar filters: A great addition to your existing gear

Best solar eclipse glasses

Best solar filters

Best solar binoculars

Best solar telescopes

Best smart telescopes

Contributing experts

FAQs

At dawn tomorrow, March 29, a deep partial solar eclipse will be visible across much of the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada, as well as in northwestern Europe, northwestern Africa and northern Russia, as the moon takes a "bite" out of the sun from our perspective on Earth.

A lucky group of 13 states will have views of the sunrise solar eclipse, but exactly when to watch the celestial event — the first solar eclipse of the year — depends on your location.

What time is the March 29 solar eclipse?

According to Time and Date, the eclipse officially begins at 4:50 a.m. EDT and ends just under four hours later, at 8:43 a.m. EDT. However, that doesn't tell you exactly when to see it, when the eclipse will reach its peak, or how long it will last for any particular location.

Related: How to watch tomorrow's solar eclipse from anywhere on Earth

The easiest way to get the precise timings for your location is to type your city or address into this eclipse map, which will give you a full schedule of the eclipse start time, the time of sunrise, the moment of maximum eclipse and the eclipse end time for your location. It will also tell you where in the sky to look, as well as simulate what you'll see.

For example, in Boston, sunrise is at 6:31 a.m. EDT and will take place at 85 degrees azimuth (measured clockwise from north), so just north of due east. The eclipse will be at its maximum (43%) shortly after at 6:38 a.m. EDT while just 1 degree above the horizon. The eclipse will end at 7:07 a.m. EDT, with the moon departing the sun while it's 6 degrees above due east.

In New York City, sunrise is at 6:44 a.m. EDT and will also occur at 85 degrees. The eclipse will be at its maximum (21%) at 6:46 a.m. EDT while on the horizon and end at 7:04 a.m. EDT while it's 3 degrees above the horizon.

With the eclipse taking place very low on the horizon in North America, it's best to be in a coastal location to see the sunrise above the ocean or to observe from an elevated position. Also, because this is a partial solar eclipse, viewers must wear protective eyewear at all times, be it a pair of certified solar eclipse glasses or a backyard telescope with solar filters attached.

Across Europe, the eclipse becomes a midmorning event. The sun will be eclipsed to a much lesser extent, but it will be much easier to see than in North America because it will be higher above the horizon. For example, in London, the eclipse begins at 10:07 a.m., peaks at 11:03 a.m. at 31%, and ends at midday. There, the entire event will occur high in the southeastern sky, making precision far less important.

Sun quiz: How well do you know our home star?

On August 12, a total solar eclipse will be visible from Spain, Iceland and Greenland, with a deep partial eclipse visible across much of Europe and the UK. If you want to witness this breathtaking natural event in person, you don't have long to stock up on the best gear to see it.

Our picks of the best solar eclipse glasses will ensure you're safe to view the upcoming eclipse. We've verified that they are all certified to ISO 12312-2:2015(E), which requires specific testing to meet the International Standards Organization's safety parameters.

You might spot some brands labeling their solar eclipse glasses as 'NASA-approved' but we can confirm that NASA does not approve any solar eclipse glasses, so be wary of these products.

If you want to get a closer look at the upcoming eclipse event, check out our guides to the best telescopes and the best binoculars (although bear in mind you'll need eye protection or solar filters to use these, too). We also have a handy guide to the equipment you need to see the solar eclipse, which we'd recommend you take a look at if you want to get a closer look at our star.

Remember, you should never look directly at a solar eclipse or a partial solar eclipse, even when wearing sunglasses. Specialized eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker than standard sunglasses, giving your eyes the protection they need to look directly at the sun.

The best solar eclipse glasses to buy in 2026

Contributing experts

Frequently asked questions

The March 29 partial solar eclipse is just days away now, and while viewing an eclipse with solar safe glasses is a great budget option that will protect your eyes, you might want something a little more robust to take a closer look at the sun, and the best solar binoculars are a perfect way to do just that.

We rated Celestron's EclipSmart 10x42 Solar Binoculars as one of the best pairs of binoculars for safe solar observing at their usual price of $87.95. Right now, they are even better value as you can pick them up with a $35 saving in this binoculars deal — so a terrific buy for viewing the partial solar eclipse on March 29.

Buy the Celestron EclipSmart 10x42 Solar Binoculars for just $52.35 at Amazon.

The Celestron EclipSmart 10x42 Solar is a great pair of binoculars for anyone new to sungazing and wanting to get great views of the partial eclipse without shelling out too much. As the name suggests, these are great binoculars for safe observation of the sun and feature Celestron Solar Safe filter technology – which conforms to the ISO international safety standard for filters for direct viewing of the Sun, as we mentioned in our full Celestron EclipSmart 10x42 review.

At full price, the Celestron EclipSmart 10x42 Solar is excellent value, but with 33% off the usual price in this deal, it's hard to beat. The build quality on these binoculars is good too, constructed from a lightweight aluminum frame with a weather-resistant rubber finish that enhances grip and provides protection. There's also a Celestron Limited Lifetime US Warranty.

Key features: Easy to use, solar-safe tech that meets ISO 12312-2:2015, Lightweight design.

Price history: These binoculars have been as low as $42, but that was in 2018 and this is the lowest price we've seen this year. With only a few days until the partial solar eclipse, we think this is a great time to buy them.

Reviews consensus: These sun-safe binoculars are easy to get started with, making them a great choice for beginners — especially at this price. Amazon reviewers have been overwhelmingly positive on the Celestron EclipSmart, and they get an aggregate score of 4.1 out of 5 from almost 300 ratings, with 63% of reviewers giving the binoculars top marks.

Live Science: ★★★★½ Space: ★★★★

Buy them if: You want binoculars, something more substantial than a pair of solar glasses, but don't want to spend too much.

Don't buy them if: You're an experienced sungazer and want something with larger objective lenses and greater magnification. The EclipSmart 12x50 Solar Binoculars would be a great choice for that.

The sunrise tomorrow (March 29) will look rather odd from the northeastern coast of North America. With a deep partial solar eclipse already in progress, a crescent sun will appear on the eastern horizon.

Thirteen U.S. states will see the March 29 solar eclipse in some form, with a deeper eclipse visible the farther northeast you go. Coastal New England will get the best views. In Maine, up to 86% of the sun will be eclipsed as it rises. New Hampshire and Massachusetts will see up to 57% and 55% coverage, respectively. Boston will see a 43% eclipse.

If you're not in these states, don't worry: You can get an even better view by watching the entire eclipse onling for free. (Follow the link to find out more).

The eclipse will be more modest in other areas of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. New York City will experience 21% obscuration, and the coverage will be less in Philadelphia (11%); Rochester, New York (8%); and Washington, D.C. (1.2%). Although many observers across the region will be able to glimpse a slight eclipse as the sun rises higher into the eastern sky, the best views will be from a coastal location as far north as possible.

Related: March 29 solar eclipse: Where and when to see the rare sunrise solar eclipse from North America

Note: Because this is a partial eclipse, viewers MUST use protective eyewear at all times, be it a pair of certified solar eclipse glasses, or a backyard telescope equipped with a solar filter.

You'll also need clear sight lines to the sunrise, which will take place slightly to the east-northeast. You can use Time and Date's map and The Photographer's Ephemeris to find suitable locations.

A 'double sunrise'

Seeing an eclipsed sunrise is a rare opportunity in itself, but from some locations, it will be possible to glimpse a "double sunrise" as the silhouette of the moon makes the rising sun look like two separate "horns" emerging from the horizon.

That unusual sight will be restricted to northeastern Maine, southwestern New Brunswick and eastern Quebec. Prime coastal viewing spots include Quoddy Head State Park and South Lubec in Maine; Forestville, Quebec; and St. Andrews, New Brunswick, all of which will host an 83% to 87% eclipsed "double sunrise."

Atlantic Canada will see a smaller eclipsed sunrise, with the eclipse deepening shortly thereafter. Moncton, New Brunswick, will see 84%, with similar obscuration in Halifax, Nova Scotia (82%), and St. John's, Newfoundland (82%). Quebec City will see a 72% eclipsed sunrise, and Montreal and Ottawa, Ontario, will get 46% and 29%, respectively.

No eclipse will be visible in Toronto. The point of maximum eclipse will be close to Akulivik, Nunavik, in northern Quebec, where a 91% eclipsed sunrise will be seen.

Iceland, Europe, and Africa

Beyond North America, it's a midmorning event. Reykjavik, Iceland, will experience 67%, but the scene will be much less dramatic in London (31%), Paris (24%), Madrid (20%), Berlin (15%), Vienna (6%) and Rome ( 2%). On the coast of Morocco, from Tangier to Agadir, around 15% to 18% of the sun will be obscured.

The next solar eclipse — another partial one — will occur on Sept. 21, 2025, and will be visible from Antarctica, New Zealand and the southwestern South Pacific. The next partial solar eclipse in North America will be on Aug. 12, 2026 (and will be a total solar eclipse in Spain, Iceland, Greenland, Russia and a small area of Portugal).

Sun quiz: How well do you know our home star?

A dramatic solar eclipse is coming to North America tomorrow.

On Saturday, March 29, two weeks after a total lunar eclipse was visible to all of North America, skywatchers will be treated to a spectacular event that has not been seen from anywhere since last October. (If you are not in the path of the eclipse, you can watch it for free online right here).

During this eclipse, which is expected to be one of the best skywatching events in 2025, observers in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. will be able to witness a partially eclipsed sunrise. It will be the first solar eclipse in North America since the "Great American Eclipse" on April 8, 2024.

Here's everything you need to know about where, when and how to watch the rare celestial spectacle.

A 'deep' partial eclipse

This event will be a deep partial solar eclipse; about 93% of the sun's disk will be blocked by the new moon. As such, it will be a near — but not quite — total solar eclipse.

The event will be visible at sunrise and shortly after from parts of North America, and then from Greenland, Iceland, Europe and northwest Africa, where it will be a smaller eclipse as the sun climbs higher in the sky throughout the morning. People in northwestern Russia can watch the eclipse late in the day, with a partially eclipsed sunset occurring over remote areas of Siberia. For more information, check out this handy eclipse map from NASA.

Note: Because the eclipse is partial, you must wear certified solar eclipse glasses at all times, or else use a telescope or pair of binoculars with a solar filter. Failure to do so could result in serious eye damage.

Where and when will the solar eclipse be visible?

Tomorrow's partial solar eclipse will take place for about two hours across the planet, between 4:50 a.m. and 8:43 a.m. ET (8:50 UTC and 12:43 UTC). Here's everything you need to know about what time the eclipse starts in your area.

The best places to view the eclipse will be northern Quebec, where a maximum of 93.1% of the sun will be obscured by the moon. The closer any location is to Akulivik in northern Quebec, the deeper the eclipse will be there. However, this region also sees the eclipse at sunrise.

Choice locations for viewing the spectacle include northeast of Quebec City and along the border between Maine and New Brunswick.

Best solar eclipse glasses deals March 2025

• Amazon: Solar eclipse glasses from Celestron
• Walmart: Smartphone filters, solar glasses
• Target: Solar eclipse glasses
• Best Buy: Solar gear: Telescopes, binoculars and viewers

Will the U.S. see the eclipse?

The solar eclipse will be visible from 13 states in the northeastern U.S. The views from each state will be slightly different.

From the eastern contiguous U.S., the sun will be eclipsed to a maximum of 85%, according to In The Sky. However, that will only occur in northern Maine; most population centers on the East Coast will miss out on the most dramatic spectacle. For instance, Philadelphia will see only 11% coverage, while Washington, D.C., will experience just 1%. An eclipsed sunrise will be visible from the U.S. East Coast, from the Canadian border down to Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Reykjavik, Iceland, will see 67% of the sun blocked by the moon, with less coverage in Dublin (41%), London (30%), Paris (23%) and Berlin (15%).

Because there will be no totality, all observers of this partial solar eclipse will need proper eye protection at all times — including certified solar eclipse glasses and solar filters for all cameras and binoculars.

Repeat: It is NEVER safe to look at a partial solar eclipse without eye protection, even during 93% coverage of the sun. Please observe safely.

Sun quiz: How well do you know our home star?

While millions of Earthlings watched the moon turn red during last night's "blood moon" total lunar eclipse, a spacecraft parked on the moon was watching Earth swallow the sun.

In a series of stunning images shared by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace — the private company whose Blue Ghost lander successfully touched down on the moon's near side on March 2 — the distant sun is slowly eclipsed by the dark orb of Earth until only a bright ring remains. Firefly also shared a time-lapse video of the entire eclipse (embedded below), showing the sun progressively blocked by the Earth until near-total darkness descended.

This eerie effect marks the moment of totality, the total phase of a lunar eclipse during which the sun's disk is entirely blocked and the moon is subsumed into the darkest part of Earth's shadow.

The March 13-14 lunar eclipse lasted about six hours in total, from roughly midnight to 6 a.m. EDT Friday, with totality lasting about an hour, from 2:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. EDT. On Earth, that was when the moon appeared to turn red — an effect of Rayleigh scattering, wherein shorter, bluer wavelengths of sunlight are scattered by molecules in Earth's atmosphere, leaving only longer, redder wavelengths of light to reach the moon.

Related: The 10 best stargazing events of 2025

At the same time, the moon experienced a totality that was shockingly reminiscent of the monumental total solar eclipse that crossed North America last April. As Earth blocked the sun's disk, only our star's outer atmosphere, or corona, was visible to Blue Ghost's cameras on the moon. (The time-lapse video also shows the spacecraft turning red as more and more sunlight is filtered through Earth’s atmosphere).

As totality finally ended, sunlight peaked around the edges of Earth, creating a glorious "diamond ring" effect in the sky.

This sparkling view of totality is the result of the precise size and orbital distance ratios of Earth, the moon and the sun. Although eclipses are also possible on other planets, lifeforms on those worlds wouldn't get to see a diamond ring of starlight like we do.

While shots like these are incredibly rare, this is not the first time a total eclipse has been seen from the moon. NASA's Surveyor 3 lunar spacecraft recorded one such eclipse back in 1967.

This month's total lunar eclipse isn't just a blast from the past; it's also a harbinger. Eclipses always come in pairs, with solar eclipses inevitably occurring two weeks after lunar eclipses.

(This is thanks to the lunar cycle; lunar eclipses can happen only during a full moon, when Earth gets between the moon and the sun; solar eclipses happen only during a new moon, when the moon swings between Earth and the sun.)

The next solar eclipse on Earth will happen on March 29, although it will be a partial one — so viewers must wear certified eclipse glasses the whole time. During the eclipse, up to 94% of the sun's disk will be blocked by the moon, with the northeastern United States and eastern Canada primed to get good views.

Another spectacular year for stargazers lies ahead. From the appearance of a brilliantly bright Venus to the first total lunar eclipse since 2022, there will be plenty of reasons to look skywards at night this year. Other highlights will include a deep partial solar eclipse in North America, four moonless meteor showers and three supermoons. While many of these events will be visible to the naked eye, investing now in a good beginner telescope can greatly enhance your experience.

Quadrantid meteor shower

When: Jan. 3/4, 2025

The Quadrantid meteor shower, the first meteor shower of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, can often impress — if you can stand the cold — with between 25 and 200 shooting stars per hour during its peak. It's also the last meteor shower until April's Lyrids.

Venus at its brightest

When: Feb. 19, 2025

As Venus reaches its closest point to Earth, it will shine at -4.5 magnitude — as bright as it ever gets — but the dazzling sight will reveal something else if you point a small telescope at it. As an inner planet, when it nears Earth, it appears as a crescent; watch from Jan. 11 to Feb. 19, and you'll see it shrink each night.

Total lunar eclipse

When: March 13 to 14, 2025

The first total eclipse of the moon since late 2022 will turn the lunar surface a gorgeous orangey-reddish color for 65 minutes. North America will get a ringside seat, with the event seen throughout the continent during the night. Europe isn't so lucky, as it will get just a glimpse of the phenomenon during moonset.

Northern lights at equinox

When: March 20 and Sept. 22, 2025

The equinoxes, when Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, create the ideal geometry for reliable and spectacular displays of auroras around the poles — and this year, these light shows will likely occur farther north and south. With the sun at solar maximum in 2025, expect increased solar activity, including aurora-triggering outbursts, particularly in the few weeks after the equinoxes.

Partial solar eclipse

When: March 29, 2025

Although it won't match the total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, for sheer drama, those in northeastern U.S. states and eastern provinces in Canada may glimpse an eclipsed sunrise if skies are clear. This partial solar eclipse will see as much as 94% of the sun blocked by the moon, and it will also occur across Europe and northwest Africa.

Lyrid meteor shower

When: April 21 to 22, 2025

With 2024's Perseids — the most prolific and popular meteor shower of the year — marred by bright moonlight, other meteor showers will have to pick up the slack. With a crescent moon setting early in the evening, expect a good show from the Lyrids, which deliver about 10 to 20 shooting stars per hour and a few super-bright fireballs. April is also a good month to begin looking for the Milky Way later at night.

Eta Aquariid meteor shower

When: May 6 to 7, 2025

Expect about 60 shooting stars per hour during the peak of the Eta Aquariids, which will take place under ideal astronomical conditions. It is one of two meteor showers caused by dust and debris left in the inner solar system by Halley's comet (the other being November Orionids). The Eta Aquariids are best seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

Saturn at opposition

When: Sept. 21, 2025

Saturn will be at its brightest and best in late September as Earth passes between the gas giant and the sun. This will be the best time to see Saturn, though you'll need a small telescope to see its rings. There will be no opposition from Jupiter in 2025 — the giant planet will align with Earth and the sun early in 2026.

Venus and Jupiter conjunction

When: Aug. 12, 2025

Get up before sunrise on this date, and you'll likely see the beautiful sight of Jupiter and Venus shining just a degree from each other. That's less than the width of your little finger held out at arm's length against the sky. Jupiter will shine at -1.8 magnitude and Venus at -3.9 magnitude.

Beaver supermoon

When: Nov. 5, 2025

There will be three supermoons in 2025, the closest of which will be November's Beaver Moon at 221,726 miles (356,833 kilometers) from Earth. It will be the closest full moon this year and the closest since 2019. It will be preceded by October's Hunter's Moon and December's Cold Moon, with January 2026's Wolf Moon also being a supermoon.

What it is: The sun's corona

Where it is: About 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth

When it was shared: Dec. 10, 2024

Why it's so special: This stunning image shows the sun's corona during two total solar eclipses — on April 20, 2023, and April 8, 2024. The photo, snapped by a team of eclipse-chasing astrophotographers known as the Solar Wind Sherpas, is significant because it shows the sun during solar maximum, the peak in its roughly 11-year cycle, scientists explained at a Dec. 13 news conference at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The sun's magnetic activity waxes and wanes over 11 years. The current solar cycle began in 2019 with solar minimum and reached solar maximum in mid-October. Scientists count the number of sunspots — cooler solar regions that are caused by a concentration of magnetic-field lines — to determine and predict the progress of the solar cycle. However, some solar science can be performed only during a total solar eclipse.

Related: Eclipse from space: See the moon's shadow race across North America at 1,500 mph in epic satellite footage

The sun's corona is the hottest and outermost layer of the star's atmosphere; it extends millions of miles into space. However, its intricate structures are overwhelmed by the sun's photosphere — its bright surface — and can be seen from Earth only during the totality phase of a total solar eclipse, when the sun is completely blocked by the moon from our perspective on Earth.

The image shows the combined results of images of the corona taken during two separate totalities and in multiple wavelengths. The photos show how, even though the sun was close to solar maximum during both eclipses, its magnetic field shaped the sun's corona differently during each eclipse. The images contain information about the corona's temperature and are vital for solar physicists' attempts to understand the corona and why it's so much hotter than the photosphere.

The photos that make up the two composite images were taken from heady heights. In addition to being snapped by cameras attached to telescopes, the photos were taken by spectral imaging cameras mounted on a kite in Western Australia (for the April 2023 eclipse) and on the NASA WB-57 research aircraft flying out of Houston (for the April 2024 eclipse).

For more sublime space images, check out our Space Photo of the Week archives.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover was treated to a "googly eye" solar eclipse as the planet's moon Phobos passed in front of the sun.

Phobos — one of Mars' two moons, along with the even tinier Deimos — traveled between the Red Planet and the sun on Sept. 30, the 1,285th Martian day of Perseverance's mission. The rover, located on the western wall of Mars' Jezero Crater at the time, captured the eclipse using its powerful Mastcam-Z camera system.

NASA recently shared a new video of footage taken by Perseverance, showing the tiny, potato-shaped moon as it moved in front of the sun's disk. Phobos appeared as a dark black object against the warm glow of the sun, creating what looks like a "googly eye" (where Phobos is the pupil) in the skies above Mars.

This is not the first time that Perseverance has witnessed a solar eclipse from Mars. In fact, given that Phobos circles the Red Planet once every 7.6 hours, this type of event is much more common on Mars, compared to eclipses on Earth.

Related: Perseverance rover watches a solar eclipse on Mars

"Because Phobos' orbit is almost perfectly in line with the Martian equator and relatively close to the planet's surface, transits of the moon occur on most days of the Martian year," NASA officials said in the statement sharing the new Perseverance video footage.

Measuring only 17 miles (27 kilometers) at its widest point, Phobos is roughly 157 times smaller in diameter than Earth's moon. Given its swift orbit, a transit of Phobos usually lasts only 30 seconds or so. The video footage shared shows the eclipse in real time, as well as sped up by four times.

"At the same time that Phobos appeared as a large black disc rapidly moving across the face of the sun, its shadow, or antumbra, moved across the planet's surface," NASA officials said in the statement.

In addition to Perseverance, NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity rovers have also been treated to solar eclipses on Mars, during which Phobos passed in front of the sun. By capturing various eclipse events over the last 20 years, scientists are able to learn more about the moon and how its orbit is changing.

This data is particularly helpful as Phobos is nearing Mars at a rate of 6 feet (1.8 meters) every 100 years. As a result, the moon is predicted to crash into the Red Planet within about 50 million years, according to the statement.

Originally posted on Space.com.

Even Mars rovers like to chase solar eclipses.

On Sept. 30, NASA's Perseverance rover turned its Left Mastcam-Z camera toward the sky and photographed a solar eclipse from Mars, capturing the planet's moon Phobos partially blocking the sun's disk.

In the series of photographs, you can distinctly see the shape of Phobos, which resembles a lumpy potato. Phobos, which is the larger of Mars' two tiny moons, isn't spherical like our own moon — or many moons in our solar system, for that matter — but rather irregular like an asteroid.

Measuring roughly 17 miles by 14 miles by 11 miles (27 by 22 by 18 kilometers), this Phobos orbits Mars at an exceptionally close distance — just 3,700 miles (6,000 km). By comparison, our moon circles at an average distance of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. And Phobos is a fast mover, completing three orbits of Mars in a single day.

Related: NASA's Perseverance rover may already have found signs of life on Mars, discovery of ancient lake sediments reveals

While Phobos might look like an asteroid, it likely isn't one. In fact, the origin of Phobos is one of the moon's biggest mysteries. Some scientists have ruled out Phobos as a captured asteroid for one main reason — its orbit around Mars is nearly perfect. If Mars' gravitational pull had snagged a passing asteroid, the abducted object likely would have an irregular orbit.

Current theories about the origin of Phobos and its companion moon, Deimos, revolve around some form of accretion, whether that's from leftover material as Mars formed or from a cataclysmic collision between the Red Planet and another celestial body.

Perseverance's recent photo series of Phobos isn't the first time the rover has imaged a solar eclipse; it also photographed the oblong moon transiting the sun in April 2022 and February 2024.

And, in fact, Perseverance wasn't even the first rover to image such an event. NASA's twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers observed Phobos solar transits in 2004, while Curiosity recorded the first video of one in 2019. See? Rovers really do love chasing solar eclipses!

Originally posted on Space.com.

What it is: An annular solar eclipse

Where it is: Over Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, in the Pacific Ocean

When it was shared: Oct. 2, 2024

Why it's so special: For up to 7 minutes, 25 seconds on Wednesday, Oct. 2, the new moon appeared to sit perfectly inside the sun's disk during a partial "ring of fire" solar eclipse. On both sides of that short time, the edge of the moon appeared to touch the inside edge of the sun, causing "Baily's beads" — sunlight pouring through the moon's mountains — to fizz. Onlookers had to use solar eclipse glasses and equipment fitted with solar filters to safely observe the phenomenon.

Annular solar eclipses differ from total solar eclipses because the moon is farther from Earth, so the moon can't cover the sun's entire disk. On Oct. 2, the moon eclipsed 86.9% of the sun at its peak while appearing 6.4% smaller than average, according to Moonblink.

However, there are ways to image the eclipse safely while extracting more detail than is possible through regular solar filters. This very special image was taken by astrophotographer Aditya Madhavan while traveling with the eclipse tour group Astro Trails to Easter Island. Madhavan used a Lunt H-alpha telescope, which sees in only the wavelength of light created by hydrogen atoms on the sun.

"We're looking at the sun's image in hydrogen-alpha, and what we're seeing is the chromosphere of the sun, specifically in the wavelength of 656.28 nanometers," Madhavan told Live Science. The sun's chromosphere is a thin layer of plasma that lies between the sun's visible surface, called the photosphere, and the sun's upper atmosphere, or corona, which becomes visible to the naked eye during a total solar eclipse.

"It's a special kind of filter known as an h-alpha etalon that isolates that layer of the sun's atmosphere," Madhavan added. The photographer used a Lunt 40-millimeter hydrogen Alpha telescope using a QHY174 monochrome camera and tracking on a Rainbow Astro RST 135 mount. That allowed him to capture solar prominences — bright features extending outward from the sun's surface and into the corona — around the solar limb

Related: 'Ring of fire' solar eclipse blazes over Easter Island in incredible new image

In sharp contrast to the total solar eclipse in North America on April 8, which crossed over about 50 million people, this eclipse was visible only from within a remote path about 165 to 206 miles (265 to 331 kilometers) wide across remote Patagonia in both Chile and Argentina, where barely 175,000 people live, as well as from Easter Island.

Madhavan observed the eclipse above a spectacular water-filled volcanic caldera called Rano Kau. From that location, annularity — the moment when the moon appeared to sit within the sun with a "ring of fire" circling its edge — lasted up to 6 minutes, 10 seconds.

Although the "ring of fire" was also visible from parts of Patagonia in Chile and Argentina, most eclipse chasers traveled to Easter Island, some 2,200 miles (3,500 km) off the coast of Chile. It's home to roughly 1,000 human-faced moai statues, all staring inland from its coast and constructed mainly between 1150 and 1290. A tiny island covering just 63 square miles (163 square kilometers), Rapa Nui is not often in the path of solar eclipses. This was Rapa Nui's first annular solar eclipse since 1788 and its last until 2345.

It was Earth's first annular solar eclipse since Oct. 14, 2023, the last until Feb. 17, 2026, and the longest until Feb. 6, 2027, when a "ring of fire" will be visible for 7 minutes, 51 seconds from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, according to Timeanddate.

For more sublime space images, check out our Space Photo of the Week archives.

On Wednesday (Oct. 2) a ring of fire appeared in the sky over one of the most isolated islands on Earth as thousands of enormous stone heads looked on.

This was not a sign of the gods' fury (we hope) but a spectacular form of partial eclipse called an annular solar eclipse — sometimes dubbed a "ring of fire" eclipse, for the bright hoop of light that becomes visible during the eclipse's peak, when the moon blocks out roughly 90% of the sun's visible surface.

Arriving just months after the April 8 total solar eclipse that stunned millions of skywatchers across North America, Wednesday's celestial event was only visible from a small handful of inhabited places, including southern Chile and Argentina. But the most spectacular view was arguably from the Pacific island of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island), where U.K.-based astrophotographer Josh Dury was ready to watch the event unfold over the island's famous stone moai statues.

In an incredible composite image shared with Live Science, Dury captured the full transit of the moon across the sun's face — a slow-burning celestial event that lasted about 3.5 hours from start to finish, and a little over 6 minutes during its peak "ring of fire" phase. In the foreground, a stern moai statue points its nose skyward.

"[This is] 21 images blended into a single frame," Dury said in an email. "Captured between 12:23 - 15:52 local time."

Dury added that a personal friend and tour guide allowed him and his travel companion — Dury's mother — to access a normally restricted area of the national park called the Rano Raraku quarry, where hundreds of moai statues stand. "If it was not for him, we would not be able to get this picture," Dury said. This special tour allowed Dury and his mother to witness "the last annular eclipse over the island in 312 years," he added. "A very special moment to share indeed."

Related: Perseid meteor shower rains 'shooting stars' over Stonehenge in glorious astrophotography image

Solar eclipses occur when the moon is positioned precisely between Earth and the sun, always falling two weeks after a full moon. The last one was September's full Harvest Moon, which also featured a partial lunar eclipse.

During a total solar eclipse, the moon appears to block out the sun's visible surface entirely. During a partial solar eclipse, like the Oct. 2 annular eclipse, the moon is located a bit farther from Earth and appears a bit smaller in the sky, never fully blocking the sun. Because of this, partial eclipse viewers must always wear protective gear, like solar eclipse glasses, to view the event.

Approximately 1,000 human-faced moai statues dot Easter Island, though little is known about their purpose or their construction. Many of the surviving statues have massive torsos buried beneath the ground, and weigh up to 75 tons (68 metric tons).

Radiocarbon dating of food remnants found on obsidian tools on the island suggest that Rapa Nui was inhabited as early as 1,000 years ago. Thousands of people live there today, mostly to support the moai tourism industry. Located roughly 2,200 miles (3,540 km) west of Chile — the closest South American country — Easter Island is one of the most secluded inhabited islands in the world.

Update: This article was updated on Oct. 3 to include extra details and quotes from the photographer

A spectacular image of sunlight streaming through mountains on the moon during a solar eclipse has been crowned this year’s grand prize winner in the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition hosted by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in the U.K.

But the winning images in other categories were just as impressive, including stunning photographs of the Dolphin Head nebula and a backlit, worm-like galaxy.

The overall winner of the competition, Ryan Imperio, took the striking eclipse image on Oct. 14, 2023 in Odessa, Texas. The image, titled "Distorted Shadows of the Moon's Surface Created by an Annular Eclipse," features a sequence of continuous eclipse shots that captured shadows in the ring patterns, known as Baily's beads.

Baily's beads appear because the surface of the moon is peppered with mounds, valleys and craters, meaning sunlight is broken up as it shines around the moon during an eclipse. These visible breaks in sunlight are rare, only occurring as the moon enters or exits an eclipse, and it takes immense precision to capture them, according to a statement shared with Live Science.

"This is an impressive dissection of the fleeting few seconds during the visibility of the Baily's beads," Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn, a meteorologist and judge in the competition, said in the statement. "It's exceptional work deserving of high recognition."

Related: Space photo of the week: The 1st image of an alien planet

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich received around 3,500 image entries, from which a panel of judges selected winners in 11 categories.

In the Galaxies category, the judges chose an image of Centaurus A, a galaxy also known as NGC 5128, surrounded by powerful jets of radiation and particles traveling close to the speed of light. The image, captured by Bence Tóth and Péter Feltóti from Hungary, shows the galaxy in a worm-like shape. Centaurus A is only visible from the Southern Hemisphere and low northern latitudes, so the photographers traveled to Namibia to capture the image in June 2023, according to the statement.

A mesmerizing image of the Dolphin Head Nebula, showing both the main body of the nebula and background stellar wind, won the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer. Xin Feng and Miao Gong captured the image over a period of 10 days in China's Sichuan province in January before processing the image.

For the Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation, the panel chose a multicolored picture of Earth created using satellite data. Land masses, oceans and atmospheric features appear red, green and blue in this image by Sergio Díaz Ruiz from Spain.

To view the full list of this year's contest winners, head over to the Royal Museums Greenwhich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year homepage.

As millions of people looked up to the sky to see the moon temporarily (and completely) block out the sun during the April 8 total solar eclipse, the extraordinary cosmic event also shifted invisible "time signals" being beamed from the U.S. across the globe, new data shows. But don't worry, these altered signals did not result in any changes to the time we observed during or after the event.

The shifted time signals came from the WWV radio station — a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) facility located in Fort Collins, Colorado, that monitors and broadcasts high-frequency radio waves. 

WWV, which is jointly operated by NASA's Ham Radio Citizen Science Investigation (HamSCI), constantly broadcasts a special signal embedded with "digital time codes" to millions of receivers around the world. Devices that pick up this signal interpret the digital codes embedded within the transmission and use them to stay in sync with NIST's atomic clocks, which serve as the gold standard for all U.S. timekeeping.

Related: 6 strange things observed during the April 8 solar eclipse: From doomed comets to 'diamond rings'

However, in order to do this, the signal must be bounced off the ionosphere — the upper part of the atmosphere between 50 and 370 miles (80 and 600 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, where gases are turned into plasma, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And during the eclipse, the ionosphere was slightly altered as the moon's shadow raced across the U.S. at more than 1,500 mph (2,400 km/h). 

As a result, the frequency of the signal being bounced off this part of the atmosphere was shifted slightly, Spaceweather.com initially reported. Similar frequency shifts were also seen in other radio signals sent or received by amateur radio operators across the country, HamSci reported.

Luckily, the change to the WWV signal's frequency was so small that the digital time codes transmitted by the radio waves were unaltered, meaning devices that rely on the signal to keep time were unaffected, according to Spaceweather.com. 

Radio waves from other major time signal stations across the world, including WWV's sister station WWVH in Hawaii, were unaffected by the eclipse.

A 'quick flip to darkness'

The shift to the WWV signal is known as a Doppler shift, which happens when the distance a signal must travel either increases or decreases. These changes can either stretch or truncate the waves, which in turn alters the frequency and wavelength of the waves.

Similar Doppler shifts happen naturally at least twice every 24 hours as the sun rises and sets, Kristina Collins (radio callsign KD8OXT), a researcher at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, told Live Science in an email. "Every day, light from the sun causes photoionization in the ionosphere, causing ionospheric layers to move, combine or separate." 

From sunrise onward, this causes the ionosphere to expand, which means radio waves do not travel as far before bouncing off this invisible barrier, Collins said. But when the sun sets, the ionosphere contracts, allowing signals to travel farther before being bounced back to the surface, she added. As a result, radio signals have to travel farther at night, which slightly increases their wavelengths. 

The same thing happened during the "quick flip to darkness" of the eclipse, Collins said. "Essentially, it's like a day/night cycle in miniature." 

Similar, less extreme Doppler shifts can also be caused by changes in solar activity, including large gusts of solar wind, explosive solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can all alter Earth's ionosphere when they bombard our planet, Collins added. 

On April 8, millions of people across North America looked up to the sky as the moon temporarily (and completely) blocked out the sun during the total solar eclipse. The historic cosmic event, which was also seen from space, was special because of the length of totality — the period when the sun's light was completely obscured — which lasted up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds. 

However, several other strange things happened during the eclipse that helped to further elevate it to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. From mysterious red dots and a newly discovered solar system object to surprising animal and human behaviors, here are the six weirdest things that happened during the eclipse.

Related: Top total solar eclipses to look out for over the next decade

Shifting 'time signals'

As the moon's shadow passed across North America, radio operators noticed a small shift in the frequency and wavelengths of the signals they were sending and receiving. These subtle changes were also spotted in signals sent out by a government-run station in Colorado, which transmits digital time codes to millions of people across the world.  

The altered signals were the result of changes to the upper atmosphere caused by a sudden lack of solar radiation during the eclipse. These changes meant that radio waves which bounced off this part of the atmosphere, had to travel further and became stretched as a result.

Luckily, the changes to the time signals being transmitted did not alter the codes embedded within them, meaning that no actual changes to the time we experience occurred.

Puzzling plasma plumes 

During totality, thousands of people witnessed peculiar red dots around the edge of the sun's obscured disk. Detailed photos of these dots revealed that they were fiery plumes of plasma that had seemingly erupted from the sun and were towering above our home star's surface.

Lots of people assumed that these solar outbursts were the result of powerful explosions known as solar flares. However, there were no flares during totality. Experts later explained that what people were seeing was another phenomenon known as solar prominences. These large plasma structures erupt from the sun but remain intact and attached to the solar surface for weeks at a time.

Photographers initially hoped to photograph solar flares during totality. But in the lead-up to the eclipse, the sun entered a surprising lull in solar activity, despite being near the peak in the solar cycle. As a result, explosive flares were always going to be unlikely.

New comet discovered (and destroyed) 

One of the biggest surprises during the total solar eclipse was the discovery of a tiny "sungrazer" comet named SOHO-5008, which was first spotted by an amateur astronomer just hours before the event began.

Scientists immediately predicted that the comet might be visible to photographers during the eclipse. As suspected, multiple photographers captured blurry images of the comet as it raced toward the sun. However, it was not visible to the naked eye.

Then, just a few hours after the eclipse ended, the newly identified comet appeared to be destroyed by the sun as it got too close to our home star and likely disintegrated.

Animals acting oddly 

For humans, the eclipse is a special event that we can understand and predict in advance. But for animals, totality is a massive shock, and this surprise can trigger some rather interesting behaviors. 

Zoos located along the path of totality kept a close eye on their animals during the eclipse. 

At the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas, lots of animals — including gorillas, tortoises, elephants and bonobos — mistook the darkening sky for dusk and went to return to their indoor areas, CBS News reported. And at the Indianapolis Zoo, several bird species began to settle down for the night.

At Dallas Zoo, zebras, giraffes and chimpanzees were seen running around or patrolling their enclosures, while flamingos huddled together for safety, all of which are signs of anxiety, according to CBS News. Meanwhile, an ostrich at the same zoo laid an egg during totality, although it is unclear if this was caused by the eclipse.

Live Science's Brandon Specktor also witnessed some strange animal behavior as he watched the eclipse live from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario, with his family — and a goose. The waterfowl stayed eerily quiet during totality before erupting with a loud honk as the sun reappeared, which was echoed with chirps from other birds seemingly "greeting what they may have imagined was a new dawn."

Massive internet usage drop-off 

During totality, humans in the path of the moon's shadow displayed a surprising behavioral change that is becoming increasingly rare in the modern age: They put down their phones and stopped using the internet.

Network services and cybersecurity company Cloudflare reported that, during the eclipse, internet usage across the path of totality fell as people looked up to the sky. Across the U.S., internet usage dropped by 8% during the eclipse. However, in certain states — including Vermont, Ohio, New Hampshire, Maine, Indiana and Arkansas, parts of which were in the path of totality — internet usage decreased by at least 40% during totality. The biggest drop was seen in Vermont, where online traffic plummeted by 60%.

Similar decreases were also seen in parts of Mexico and Canada, which were in the path of the eclipse as well, Cloudflare reported.

Visible daytime planets 

Observing the planets is normally reserved for nighttime hours and is possible only if you know where to look. But during totality, eclipse observers got a rare chance to spot some of the planets during the day.   

As initially predicted, Jupiter and Venus were visible to the naked eye during totality. Both appeared near the sun, although they were not visible to everyone because of cloud cover.  

Planets can be seen during the eclipse only if they are near our home star in the sky. The extended period of totality experienced by most eclipse observers also increased the chances of seeing the planets.

"Baily's beads" and "diamond rings" 

Depending on where you were during totality, you also may have seen some weird lights around the sun. 

Lots of people reported witnessing multiple points of light around the obscured sun. This effect, known as Baily's beads, occurs when rays of sunlight shine between mountains on the moon's uneven edge just before and after totality. Others may have spotted a "diamond ring," where a large, bright point emerges as the moon continues to move farther away. (You may have missed these phenomena completely if you were wearing your eclipse glasses at the time.)

Showing impeccable timing, Space.com reporter Josh Dinner used one of these diamond rings to propose to his partner during totality — and she said yes.

Other weird eclipse stuff

Lots of other strange things happen during an eclipse. You also may have sensed a sudden cooling effect as the sun's radiation was blocked out by the moon, or started seeing predominantly purple light thanks to a color-shifting phenomenon known as the Purkinje effect. You also may have seen clouds vanish overhead as the ground beneath you rapidly cooled. 

Even if you missed the eclipse, you can still watch NASA's livestream of the event. And the next total solar eclipse is just a couple of years away, in 2026 — if you can make it to Greenland, Iceland or Spain.

With the April 8 total solar eclipse over, North America has exactly eight years, 11 months and 22 days to wait until its next one. Although total solar eclipses occur in the same location only every 375 years or so, they are not rare. In fact, they happen on our planet about once every 18 months, on average.

In the next decade, seven total solar eclipses will occur on Earth, plunging countries as diverse as Australia, Egypt, Spain and Sudan under the central shadow of the moon. The first of these will be on Aug. 12, 2026, and the last will be on March 20, 2034, with maximum durations of totality ranging from 1 minute, 8 seconds to 6 minutes, 23 seconds.

Here are the important details about where, when and how to experience a total solar eclipse in the next decade.

Related: Here are the best photos of the April 8 total solar eclipse over North America

1. Total solar eclipse of 2026

Europe's first total solar eclipse for 27 years will coincide with the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower. The path of totality will pass over Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. The place to experience maximum totality will be on a cruise ship off the coast of Reykjavik, Iceland. The chances of a clear sky are much higher in northern Spain, but the eclipse will be much lower, so sight lines will be key. From the Spanish island of Mallorca, it will even be possible to see a "sunset totality" featuring a golden corona (as long as there are clear skies).

2. Total solar eclipse of 2027

Saros 136 is our era's preeminent family of total solar eclipses. It repeats every 18 years, 11 days and eight hours. The next one is on Aug. 2, 2027, with Luxor, Egypt, destined for a clear view of 6 minutes, 23 seconds of totality. Other options include southern Spain; Gibraltar; Tangier, Morocco; Tunisia's Kerkennah Islands; and Jeddah and Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

However, all eyes will be on Luxor, where an eclipsed sun will be visible from the Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Colossi of Memnon and the Temple of Hatshepsut.  A whopping 89 million people will experience totality in 2027 — far more than witnessed the 2024 total solar eclipse in North America.

3. Total solar eclipse of 2028

This solar eclipse — the second of five in 15 years for Australia — will be visible from remote locations such as the Bungle Bungles and Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles) in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, respectively, as well as Dubbo, the Blue Mountains and Sydney, where observers will get to witness 3 minutes, 48 seconds of totality. The South Island of New Zealand — including Milford Sound, Queenstown and Dunedin — will also experience totality close to sunset.

4. Total solar eclipse of 2030

This eclipse will occur mostly at sea, but it will cross almost 11 million people on two continents. Totality will occur shortly after sunrise from Namibia's Skeleton Coast before moving across Botswana to Durban on the east coast of South Africa. The path of totality will then stretch across a remote part of the Indian Ocean before a low-setting eclipsed sunset is seen from South Australia and the outback of New South Wales and Queensland. It's the perfect opportunity to explore Namibia or take part in a remote safari adventure in Botswana.

5. Hybrid total-annular solar eclipse of 2031

For many people, this remote and short eclipse might not be worth the effort. After all, a brief totality during this very remote eclipse will be visible only from inside a narrow path in the North Pacific Ocean, making a cruise ship from Hawaii the most likely way to experience it. 

But this is the most dramatic type of eclipse — a hybrid. A hybrid eclipse, which occurs only seven times in the 21st century, combines an annular (or "ring of fire") solar eclipse and a total solar eclipse. However, the short duration and small shadow are crucial, with informed eclipse chasers destined to enjoy an extended display of Baily's beads and a lingering diamond ring before and after totality. A "ring of fire" will be visible from the coast of Panama for 25 seconds. 

6. Total solar eclipse of 2033

For many people, this remote and short eclipse might not be worth the effort. After all, a brief totality during this very remote eclipse will be visible only from inside a narrow path in the North Pacific Ocean, making a cruise ship from Hawaii the most likely way to experience it.

But this is the most dramatic type of eclipse — a hybrid. A hybrid eclipse, which occurs only seven times in the 21st century, combines an annular (or "ring of fire") solar eclipse and a total solar eclipse. However, the short duration and small shadow are crucial, with informed eclipse chasers destined to enjoy an extended display of Baily's beads and a lingering diamond ring before and after totality. A "ring of fire" will be visible from the coast of Panama for 25 seconds.

This is the next total solar eclipse for North America. Because it occurs close to the spring equinox, it will be a great opportunity to explore Alaska during peak northern lights viewing season. An eclipsed sun as low as 8 degrees above the eastern horizon will be seen from locations such as Utqiagvik (Barrow), Sagavanirktok (Prudhoe Bay), Kotzebue and Nome.

7. Total solar eclipse of 2034

If you want a total solar eclipse to take you off the beaten path, this eclipse will suit you. The path of totality will envelope 109 million people in 13 countries in Central Africa and South Asia. Chief viewing locations will include the Red Sea Coast, in Egypt; the UNESCO World Heritage site of Persepolis, in Iran; and Leh, in the Indian Himalayas.

Additional resources

You can read all about these eclipses in the book "When Is the Next Eclipse? A traveler's guide to total solar eclipses 2024-2034," by Jamie Carter, and on his website, WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com. Other useful resources for eclipse chasers include Eclipse Wise, a website dedicated to predictions of eclipses; cartographer Michael Zeiler's GreatAmericanEclipse.com and Atlas of Solar Eclipses 2020-2045; climate and weather predictions by meteorologist Jay Anderson on Eclipsophile.com; and Xavier Jubier's Interactive Google Maps.

Originally posted on Space.com.

Now that the "Great North American Eclipse" is over, you may be itching for the next opportunity to witness another celestial marvel. So when is the next solar eclipse? 

The next total solar eclipse is more than two years out, on Aug. 12, 2026, in Greenland, Iceland and Spain. However, on Oct. 2, 2024, a "ring of fire" annular solar eclipse will pass over parts of the Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina.

Whereas 43.8 million people were able to experience totality for the April 8, 2024, eclipse in North America, only 175,000 people will have that opportunity for the Oct. 2 annular solar eclipse, according to Time and Date. The paths of both eclipses cross in the Pacific Ocean.

Related: Eclipse from space: See the moon's shadow race across North America at 1,500 mph in epic satellite footage

During an annular solar eclipse, it is NEVER safe to look directly at the sun without solar eclipse glasses designed for solar viewing.

So, ready to go eclipse chasing? Here's everything you need to know about the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 2, 2024, in Chile and Argentina. 

What is an annular solar eclipse?

The Oct. 2 eclipse will be very similar to the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023, which was visible across the U.S. Southwest, Central America and South America. All solar eclipses occur when a new moon is positioned precisely between Earth and the sun and casts its shadow on Earth. However, unlike a total solar eclipse, an annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon is slightly farther from Earth. So, even when the disks align from our perspective, the moon's shadow doesn't completely block out the sun's light. Instead, a ring of sunlight is visible around the moon.

Related: What's the difference between a total solar eclipse and an annular solar eclipse?

The eclipse on Oct. 2, 2024, will have an eclipse magnitude of 0.9326, according to EclipseWise.com. That means about 93% of the sun will be blocked by the moon during the eclipse, resulting in an "annulus" (Latin for "ring"). The moon will appear 6.4% smaller than average, according to MoonBlink.

The closer the observer is to the centerline, the more circular the ring of fire will be and the longer it will last. But experienced eclipse chasers often observe from the edge of the path during an annular solar eclipse to see extended views of Baily's beads fizzing around where the limb of the moon appears to touch the sun. They can be visible for several minutes.

From where can you see the Oct. 2 annular solar eclipse?

The ring of fire will be visible only within a path of annularity that passes across the Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina.

This area will include the volcanic island of Rapa Nui/Easter Island, an iconic travel destination that's famous for the mysterious stone statues called moai, some of which reach 40 feet (12 meters) tall and weigh 75 tons. The island, which is only 63 square miles (163 square kilometers), is located 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from the Chilean coast, making it the most isolated inhabited landmass on Earth. Remarkably, it will be the second time a central solar eclipse has been visible from this tiny Pacific island in recent decades, with a total solar eclipse glimpsed there on July 11, 2010. The next total and annular eclipses there will be in 2324 and 2345, respectively.

A good option would be to position yourself slightly south of a moai at multiple sites to get a view of the ring of fire just above one of the statues, according to the Atlas of Solar Eclipses — 2020 to 2045. Iconic locations will include the platform at Ahu Tongariki, where 15 moai are positioned on a 200-foot-long (60 m) ceremonial platform and nearby Rano Raraku.

October's ring of fire will also be visible from southern Patagonia in Chile and Argentina. The path will be 180 to 185 miles (290 to 300 km) wide.

Where and when can I see the Oct. 2 annular solar eclipse?

Here are some places eclipse chasers will gather for this annular solar eclipse:

• Rapa Nui/Easter Island, Chile (5 minutes, 38 seconds to 6 minutes, 12 seconds of annularity starting at 14:03 EAST, 67 degrees above North)
• Cochrane, Chile (5 minutes, 40 seconds of annularity starting at 17:21 CLST, 26 degrees above NNW)
• Perito Moreno National Park, Argentina (6 minutes, 17 seconds of annularity starting at 17:21 ART, 25 degrees above NNW)
• Puerto Deseado, Argentina (3 minutes, 22 seconds of annularity starting at 17:27 ART, 20 degrees above NNW)
• Puerto San Julian, Argentina (5 minutes, 12 seconds of annularity starting at 17:24 ART, 21 degrees above NNW)

Organized eclipse-viewing tours include Sky & Telescope, TravelQuest and AstroTrails. All are experienced eclipse tour operators that are headed to Rapa Nui/Easter Island.

What will the weather be like for the Oct. 2 annular eclipse?

It's always best to travel somewhere you want to visit regardless of a solar eclipse. That certainly applies to the Oct. 2 event, because the prospects of a completely clear sky are relatively low. The chances of clouds that day are 75% for Rapa Nui/Easter Island,, 90% for Perito Moreno National Park, and 65% to 70% for locations on Argentina's Atlantic coast, according to Time and Date.

On Rapa Nui/Easter Island, the cooling of the land could cause convective clouds to dissipate, according to Eclipsophile, with the south coast statistically slightly favored. The chances of seeing the ring of fire are smallest on Chile's Pacific Coast and highest on Argentina's Atlantic coast. The latter has the least interesting scenery of anywhere in the path, but the eclipse will arguably be a more dramatic sight because it will occur much lower in the sky.

Why is the Oct. 2, 2024, annular solar eclipse special?

The Oct. 2, 2024, annular solar eclipse is special for three very different reasons. First, it follows the Great North American Eclipse of April 8 — so interest in solar eclipses should be high, and many eclipse chasers will travel to see it.

Second, it's a long eclipse, with the ring of fire lasting up to 7 minutes, 25 seconds. That's much longer than the 4 minutes, 52 seconds possible in the U.S. during the last annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023.

Third, the best place to view this event is a truly iconic destination: Rapa Nui, also called Easter Island.

Where to see the partial solar eclipse on Oct. 2

Although a ring-of-fire eclipse will be visible only from the aforementioned areas of Chile and Argentina, other areas will experience a partial solar eclipse on Oct. 2. These areas include parts of the Pacific Ocean and the southern half of South America. Here's what percentage of eclipse will be seen from major cities and destinations in the partial-eclipse zone:

• Galapagos Islands (1%)
• La Paz, Bolivia (1%)
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (9%)
• São Paulo, Brazil (10%)
• Buenos Aires, Argentina (42%)
• Montevideo, Uruguay (42%)
• Santiago, Chile (44%)
• Villarrica, Chile (63%)
• El Calafate, Argentina (83%)
• Falkland Islands (84%)
• South Georgia Island (76%)
• Punta Arenas, Chile (75%)
• Ushuaia, Argentina (72%)
• Elephant Island (56%)
• Port Lockroy, Antarctica (44%)

After October 2024, when is the next annular solar eclipse?

Here are the dates and locations for some upcoming annular solar eclipses:

• Feb. 17, 2026: Antarctica
• Feb. 6, 2027: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria
• Jan. 26, 2028: Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Brazil, French Guiana, Portugal, Morocco and Spain
• June 1, 2030: Algeria, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Japan

Additional resources

Want to look further ahead? You can find a concise summary of solar eclipses out to 2030 on NASA's eclipse website. Read more about solar and lunar eclipses on EclipseWise.com, a website dedicated to predictions of eclipses. See beautiful maps on eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler's GreatAmericanEclipse.com and interactive Google Maps on Xavier Jubier's eclipse website. You can find climate and weather predictions by meteorologist Jay Anderson on eclipsophile.com.

Bibliography

Anderson, J. (February 2024). Annular Solar Eclipse 2024 October 2. Retrieved March 1, 2024 from https://eclipsophile.com/annular-solar-eclipse-october-2-2024/

Bakich, M. and Zeiler, M. (2022). Atlas Of Solar Eclipses 2020-2045.  https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/books/atlas-of-solar-eclipses-2020-to-2045

Espenak, F. Solar Eclipse Prime Page: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2024 October 2. Retrieved March 1, 2024 from: https://eclipsewise.com/solar/SEprime/2001-2100/SE2024Oct02Aprime.html

Jubier, X. (n.d.). Solar eclipses: Interactive Google Maps. Retrieved March 1, 2024 from http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/SolarEclipsesGoogleMaps.html

Time and Date. (n.d.). October 2 2024 Annular Solar Eclipse. Retrieved March 1, 2024 from https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2024-october-2

Originally posted on Space.com.

During the recent total solar eclipse, you may have glimpsed what looked like explosive solar flares bursting from the sun after its fiery corona briefly came into view. But it turns out this was not the case. 

However, what you or others may have seen was equally impressive and just as beautiful. 

On Monday (April 8), millions of people across North America watched as the moon temporarily blocked out our home star and its shadow raced along the path of totality between Mexico and Canada at more than 1,500 mph (2,400 km/h). The cosmic event, which was also seen from space, was particularly special because of the length of totality — the period when the sun's light was completely obscured — which lasted for up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds.

During totality, some observers saw red dots around the obscured sun. Detailed photos of these dots revealed they were actually plasma, including a particularly large, fiery plume on the sun's southwest limb. As a result, multiple outlets including USA Today and NDTV reported that these fiery structures were produced by solar flares — explosions on the sun's surface that can launch massive clouds of plasma, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), into space. Lots of observers also took to social media to share their photos of these "solar flares." 

But experts weighed in to point out there were no solar flares during the eclipse.

"There are many (incorrectly) reporting that a solar flare was visible during the total solar eclipse," Ryan French, an astrophysicist at the National Solar Observatory in Colorado, wrote on the social platform X. "This is sadly untrue, and the bright feature seen by millions was actually a prominence. These are longer-lived plasma structures, and not explosive like flares."

Related: When is the next total solar eclipse after 2024 in North America?

Solar activity data backs up French's claim. On April 8, there was just one minor C-class solar flare that ended several hours before totality began anywhere in the U.S., and it did not launch a CME, according to SpaceWeatherLive.com. This flare was also not linked to the large prominences seen during the eclipse. 

Unlike solar flares, which eject plasma as they explode from the sun's surface, prominences are plasma structures that remain connected to the solar surface for days or weeks, normally forming a large loop, according to NASA. Prominences can eventually snap and fling plasma into space like a CME, but this didn't happen during the eclipse.

Many people were expecting solar flares during the eclipse because the sun is currently near the peak of its roughly 11-year solar cycle, known as solar maximum. During this period, dark sunspots litter the solar surface and frequently unleash flares and other solar storms as the sun's magnetic field begins to unravel. 

However, in the lead-up to the eclipse, the sun became surprisingly inactive with almost no sunspots, which meant the chances of solar flares occurring were greatly reduced. This solar activity lull is only temporary and is expected to pass by the end of the week, according to EarthSky.com.   

If you missed the eclipse, don't worry, it is still possible to rewatch NASA's live stream of the event.

A tiny "sungrazer" comet was discovered, photographed and destroyed during the recent total solar eclipse — all within 24 hours. It is one of just a handful of times a comet has been spotted during an eclipse, experts say. 

On Monday (April 8), millions of people across North America watched the moon as it temporarily blocked our home star and its dark shadow raced along the path of totality between Mexico and Canada at more than 1,500 mph (2,400 km/h). The cosmic event, which was also seen from space, was particularly special because of the length of totality — the period when the sun's light was completely obscured — which lasted for up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds.

In the hours leading up to the eclipse, Worachate Boonplod, an amateur astronomer based in Thailand, discovered a small comet near the sun after spotting a faint disruption picked up by the coronagraph on NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), Spaceweather.com reported. The comet was named SOHO-5008.

Karl Battams, an astrophysicist and computational scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. and leader of NASA's Sungrazing Comets Project, later predicted on the social platform X that the "tiny" comet could be visible to photographers during totality — and he was right.

As the moon's shadow passed above New Hampshire, amateur astronomer Lin Zixuan snapped the comet during totality, Spaceweather.com reported.

"Ground-based observations of sungrazing comets are extremely rare" and only possible during eclipses, Battams wrote on X. But the comet was not visible to the naked eye, he added.

Related: When is the next total solar eclipse after 2024 in North America?

Later the same day, astronomers lost track of SOHO-5008 as it likely disintegrated after getting too close to the sun, like most other sungrazers eventually do, Spaceweather.com reported. Due to the limited data collected by researchers before the comet's destruction, it is unclear how large the comet was or how close it got to the sun. 

Sungrazers, which are comets that pass within around 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) of the sun, or around 10 times closer to the sun than Mercury, were first discovered in the late 19th century. Most sungrazers belong to the Kreutz group, which are believed to be fragments of a giant comet that exploded around 2,000 years ago, according to Spaceweather.com.

This is not the first time a sungrazer has been photographed during an eclipse. During the Dec. 14 solar eclipse above Argentina and Chile in 2020, comet C/2020 X3 (SOHO-3524), which was also discovered by Boonplod, was photographed sailing toward the sun. Experts believe this sungrazer, which was observed for a longer period, was around 50 feet (15 meters) wide and traveling at 450,000 mph (725,000 km/h), according to NASA.

SOHO-5008 was not the only comet that photographers were hunting for during the eclipse. Cryovolcanic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, also known as the "devil comet," was also expected to be visible via camera and potentially even to the naked eye. However, this hellish comet proved to be much harder to spot than anticipated, Business Insider reported. 

If you missed the recent eclipse, don't worry, it is still possible to rewatch NASA's live stream of the event.

Syracuse, N.Y. — On Monday morning (April 8), a crowd began gathering on the lawn of the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology (MOST), hoping to witness a total solar eclipse.

"I've seen a number of partial [solar] eclipses, but this is my first total eclipse," said Lindsay Hays, a program scientist in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. "So I'm very excited for it."

Hays answered questions from eclipse viewers as a part of the museum's Solar Eclipse Festival, which lasted from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET Monday, though many arrived earlier. With free eclipse glasses, a huge eclipse cake and a variety of vendors and food trucks, the event brought a communal eclipse experience to downtown Syracuse's Armory Square. Attendees, including many families with children, stretched out on picnic blankets in the mild weather.

One attendee, Christopher Ducey of Solvay, New York, set up a Cave Astrola telescope from the 1970s on the lawn. The vintage telescope is heavy and bulky by modern standards, Ducey said.

"But I like this old thing, and it easily converts to a really nice projecting solarscope, which is what I'm using it for today," Ducey added. Earlier in the day, the telescope's eyepiece cast a crisp projection of the sun onto a screen behind it, but clouds prevented the solarscope from working later in the day.

Related: Here are the best photos of the April 8 total solar eclipse over North America

Still, the morning's clouds were patchy, and attendees remained optimistic that they might get a glimpse at totality — the moment during a total solar eclipse when the moon completely blocks the sun's disk, plunging the ground below into shadow. If the cloud cover remained light, Hays said, there was a chance that the eclipse itself could cause the clouds to dissipate slightly. The decreased sunlight could limit the evaporation of water into the atmosphere, she said, resulting in fewer clouds forming. Hays said this same effect often causes the sky to clear up slightly during the night.

Hays was even hopeful that the sky might clear up enough to reveal planets, such as Jupiter,  near the moon during the sudden darkness of totality.

Like Hays, many at the event were excited to experience totality for the first time.

"It's the most pretty part of it," said Theo, 5, from New York City, showing off the picture he'd drawn of a dark-blue moon rimmed by a pale-yellow corona (the sun's outer atmosphere, which is visible with the naked eye only during totality).

Other attendees were simply excited to be there, pointing to the eclipse as a uniting force in a divided world.

"I'm excited to watch everyone together, especially in such a chaotic time," said Ora Jezer, who was at a booth representing the Central-Northern New York (CNNY) chapter of the Sierra Club, along with her mother, Rhea Jezer, who is the CNNY group chair.

As museum workers announced the start of the partial phase of the eclipse, the sky remained cloudy, with the sun drifting in and out of view. Often, nothing at all was visible through the eclipse glasses. But every few minutes, rays of sunlight shone through the clouds and cheers from onlookers marked each good look at the eclipse.

Just before the start of totality, the clouds dissipated enough to watch the last rays disappear behind the moon. Colors became bizarrely muted, and soon enough, the darkness of evening suddenly swept across the sky.

Unfortunately, the sun's corona wasn't bright enough to pierce the layer of clouds over MOST. But others in Syracuse, including onlookers watching from an event at Syracuse Inner Harbor, were lucky to catch a glimpse of the corona through a gap in the clouds.

Despite the weather, the eerie darkness of totality filled the crowd with awe.

"When the darkness washed over the crowd, you could feel the energy and the wonder that people were experiencing," Emily Stewart, senior director of education and curation at MOST, wrote in a email to Live Science.

After a minute and a half, a single bead of bright, golden light began to emerge from the clouds. The phenomenon, called Baily's beads, happens when sunlight peeks through valleys on the moon's surface. There were more cheers during the sun's reemergence, and the partial views immediately after were some of the clearest of the day.

Though the view of the eclipse from MOST wasn't ideal for viewing totality, Stewart said the experience was still memorable.

"Seeing so many people come out to witness an astronomical event, to hear them cheering and clapping when they saw the eclipse with their own eyes, was so rewarding for our whole team," she said.

Are you wondering what to do with your eclipse glasses now that the April 8 total solar eclipse has come and gone?

The nonprofit group Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) has partnered with libraries, schools, museums, businesses and other organizations across the U.S. and Canada to collect and recycle gently used eclipse-viewing glasses. The glasses will be sent to underserved communities and schools around the world to use during future solar eclipses, according to a statement from the organization.

"This one-of-a-kind program helps to bring eclipse glasses to people who may not otherwise have a safe way to view the eclipse directly," AWB officials said in the statement. "AWB is committed to continue sending glasses to those who need them for outreach and educational programs around the world."

Related: Here are the best photos of the April 8 total solar eclipse over North America

On Monday (April 8), a total solar eclipse passed over Mexico, 15 U.S. states and Canada. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on our planet's  surface. For those in the path of totality, the moon appears almost exactly the same size as the sun, so it blocks the entire solar disk for a few minutes. However, solar eclipse glasses are needed to safely view the sun during the partial phases of an eclipse.

Millions of solar eclipse glasses were used by viewers across North America, and now AWB wants to prevent them from unnecessarily ending up in landfills. Every pair of glasses donated will be inspected by trained volunteers to make sure they meet safety certifications and are not damaged or counterfeit, according to the statement.

One of AWB’s donation partners is Warby Parker, a prescription glasses retailer, which will use over 240 retail locations across the U.S. to collect used eclipse glasses through April 30. Other donation locations include Vessel Refillery FW in Indiana, Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful and Twinsburg Public Library in Ohio, and Montshire Museum of Science and Chittenden Solid Waste District in Vermont. The latest list of AWB collection partners can be found online.

AWB has also partnered with the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia to help with processing and storing collected glasses before they are sent to underserved communities around the world, according to the statement.

"This unique resource-sharing project is the second recycling campaign AWB is conducting, having had great success distributing hundreds of thousands of eclipse glasses collected from the 2017 American solar eclipse," AWB officials said in the statement. "Recycled and vetted solar glasses were sent to schools that were in the path of solar eclipses in South America, Africa and Asia over the past seven years."

AWB also aims to make eclipses more accessible with its "One Eclipse" app. The app features an interactive eclipse map for users to pinpoint the perfect viewing spot, along with a countdown timer for when the moon's shadow will pass overhead. The app also has an eclipse simulator that lets users see what the eclipse will look like from any location on Earth, from start to finish. One Eclipse can be downloaded on both Apple and Android devices.

Originally posted on Space.com.

Following the total solar eclipse raced across North America at a whopping 1,500 mph (2,400 km/h) Monday (April 8), drawing the eager eyes of tens of millions of skywatchers, internet searches for "my eyes hurt" seem to be spiking.

So how can you tell if you injured your eyes while watching the eclipse? And if you have, what should you do?

How can an eclipse hurt your eyes?

The only time it's safe to look at a solar eclipse with bare eyes is during totality, which is when the moon completely blocks the sun. It's dangerous to look at the sun without special eye protection any other time, including during partial phases of a solar eclipse, when the sun isn't fully obscured. This is due to a risk of "solar retinopathy," which refers to damage to the retina — the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye — caused by sun exposure or other bright lights.

Typically, protective reflexes, like blinking and pupil contraction, kick in if we glance at the sun on a normal day. During an eclipse, though, these reflexes may not be as robust because the sun is partly covered. This can make it easier to stare at the sun without discomfort — long enough to cause retinal damage.

You wouldn't necessarily feel this damage happening in real time because "the retina has no sensory nerve fibers," Dr. Vincent Giovinazzo, interim chairman of ophthalmology at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, told Live Science after North America's 2017 eclipse.

That's why it's recommended that you view eclipses through an eclipse viewer, a solar filter fitted to a telescope or binoculars, or special eclipse glasses — although, unfortunately, there were counterfeit glasses floating around for this year's eclipse, Live Science's sister site Space.com reported.

In theory, looking at an eclipse could also burn the surface of the eye, causing a condition called solar keratitis, NBC reported. But this sort of burn would be much more common among people spending time at high altitudes or in bright, white snow without eye protection, as compared to eclipse watchers.

Related: The best photos and videos of the April 8 total solar eclipse over North America

Signs of eye damage after an eclipse

The main symptoms of solar retinopathy don't always include pain, but they tend to disrupt a person's vision, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

For example, symptoms can include having blurred vision or noticing a blind spot toward the center of one or both eyes. People may also experience increased light sensitivity or distorted vision, where straight lines look curved or objects appear smaller than they really are, for instance. Changes in a person's color vision can also occur because the cells responsible for sensing color are in the retina. 

These various vision changes can also give rise to headaches, and people also commonly report eye soreness, wateriness and discomfort, the Cleveland Clinic says.

These symptoms typically show up within about four to six hours of the viewing event, although they could appear the next day, Dr. Nathan Podoll, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and co-division chief of comprehensive ophthalmology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, previously told Live Science.

Importantly, though, the symptoms that may show up after an eclipse aren't necessarily signs of permanent eye damage. In mild cases of solar retinopathy, the symptoms typically go away on their own, although it may take up to six months in some instances, the Cleveland Clinic notes. The New York Times reported that it sometimes takes closer to a year.

In severe cases of the condition, though, the eye damage can be irreversible. An ophthalmologist may suggest that they check your eyes several times across multiple visits, to see if the damage is improving or not; they can diagnose solar retinopathy and judge its severity with a test called optical coherence tomography, an imaging test that uses light to reveal damage and irregularities in the retina.

There's no specific treatment for permanent damage caused by solar retinopathy, NBC reported.

If it's not eye damage, why do my eyes feel weird?

If your eyes felt weird after the eclipse but it doesn't turn out to be retinal damage, what is it?

Staring at anything for a prolonged period can cause eye soreness, The Washington Post reported. That discomfort can arise when the eyes are dried out or when they've been focused on something for a long time, for example.

If you viewed the solar eclipse only through certified eclipse glasses, it's unlikely that your eyes were damaged, Dr. Carl Jacobsen, a clinical professor at the UC Berkeley School of Optometry, told The Washington Post. You may just be experiencing eyestrain — but if any vision changes persist, you should see an eye doctor, he said.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

Ever wonder why some people build muscle more easily than others or why freckles come out in the sun? Send us your questions about how the human body works to community@livescience.com with the subject line "Health Desk Q," and you may see your question answered on the website!

Eerie new satellite images show the moon's gigantic shadow racing across North America during the April 8 total solar eclipse. Photos captured by astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) also highlight the mind-boggling scale of this rare cosmic event.

On Monday (April 8), millions of people along or near the path of totality watched the moon temporarily block out our home star as its shadow swept across North America from Mexico to Canada. During this event, totality — the period where the sun is completely obscured — lasted up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds, depending on the viewer’s location. 

Despite some adverse weather conditions and an uncharacteristically inactive sun, observers were able to capture stunning images of the eclipse from the ground. Some people were even lucky enough to catch glimpses of rare phenomena including slithers of sunlight known as "Baily's beads" and plasma eruptions from the sun, known as solar prominences. But from space, the event was arguably even more impressive.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) 16th Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) took thousands of photos of the eclipse from its fixed position above North America. When these images were stitched together, they showed the moon's shadow sweeping across the continent, Spaceweather.com reported.

The resulting footage looks like something straight out of a sci-fi film.

"The Moon's shadow raced across North America faster than 1,500 mph [2,400 km/h], creating a mind-altering cone of darkness," Spaceweather.com wrote.

Related: When is the next total solar eclipse after 2024 in North America?

Astronauts on board the ISS also watched the eclipse from their unique viewpoint, and a member of the Expedition 71 crew captured a striking shot of the moon's shadow from around 260 miles (418 kilometers) above Earth, NASA reported. At this point, the dark void was passing from New York state into Newfoundland, Canada.

The ISS photo was no accident. NASA had been gradually maneuvering the space station for months so that it would pass through the eclipse, while also making sure the orbiting station avoided space junk. In the end, the ISS experienced a totality of around 90%, according to NASA. 

However, astronauts were unable to take photos of the actual eclipse because the windows facing the sun, which are located in the Roscosmos section of the station, were inaccessible due to "cargo constraints," NASA representatives wrote.

The gigantic dark patch was also spotted by one of SpaceX's Starlink satellites during the eclipse.

The moon's shadow is often referred to as the umbra, which is Latin for shadow. However, an umbra is just the darkest part at the heart of the moon's shadow. Our natural satellite's shadow also contains two other parts: the penumbra, where only part of the sun is covered; and the antumbra, where a fainter shadow is cast across a wider radius. 

Observers located in the path of totality were temporarily covered by a true umbra, but anyone who experienced a darkened sky outside of this route was experiencing a penumbra or antumbra. This is why the moon's shadow appears much wider than the path of totality in the new images.

If you missed the eclipse, don't worry, it is still possible to rewatch NASA's live stream of the event.

Less than seven years passed between the "Great American" total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, and the one on April 8, 2024. So when is the next total solar eclipse in North America?

The next one will take a bit more than seven years to arrive. After the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, the next one to be visible in North America will occur on March 30, 2033.

However, that one won't be nearly as accessible to most North Americans; totality will be visible only in Alaska and Russia. According to Time and Date, only 67,600 people live in the path of totality, even though it's a whopping 484 miles (779 kilometers) wide. For comparison, the path of totality for the April 8 eclipse is 115 miles (185 km) wide and encompasses 43.8 million people.

Related: Astronomers spot aurora on the sun for the 1st time

Despite the remoteness of the 2033 eclipse path — and the reasonably high chance of clouds there — the event is sure to attract thousands of eclipse chasers for a totality lasting up to 2 minutes, 37 seconds. One reason for that is that it's a great time to look for the northern lights in Alaska. March 30 is not long  after the equinox (which occurs on March 20, 2033), which is known to be one of the most colorful times of the year in the polar skies, according to Space.com. The solar wind's magnetic field is more likely to accelerate charged particles down the field lines of Earth's magnetosphere that time of the year.

It won't be easy to travel to the far north and west of Alaska, but places ideally situated for totality in 2033 include Utqiagvik, Sagavanirktok, Kotzebue and Nome. Utqiagvik, the most northerly settlement in the U.S., will be packed with eclipse chasers. At 71.2 degrees north and a center for Iñupiat culture, it is the closest place to go for the longest totality on land.

After that, the next total solar eclipse in North America will occur on Aug. 22, 2044, when Greenland will also experience a totality lasting up to 2 minutes, 4 seconds. In Canada, Calgary and Edmonton will fall within the path of totality, seeing an eclipsed sun close to sunset. Montana and North Dakota will be the only U.S. states to get a view.

Just 354 days later, on Aug. 12, 2045, the U.S. will have a coast-to-coast total solar eclipse, bringing totality to northern California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Port Saint Lucie, Florida, will experience the longest totality in the U.S. that day, at 6 minutes, 4 seconds.

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse drew its enormous shadow over North America, cutting a 115-mile-wide (185 kilometers), 10,000-mile-long (16,000 km) path of sudden darkness across the continent.

Starting in Mexico, the eclipse moved through 15 U.S. states before passing across Canada, and was visible to an estimated 44 million people.  If you didn't catch the stunning spectacle in person, here are all of our favorite photos taken from eclipse watching parties throughout the Americas.

Related: No, you didn't see a solar flare during the total eclipse — but you may have seen something just as special

The first totality began in Mazatlán, Mexico, where onlookers saw the moon pass in front of the solar disk. Just before totality, viewers were treated to a thin diamond-like ring of sunlight shimmering through valleys on the moon's outer surface.

After the moon had completely blocked off the sun's face, all that could be seen were thin purple plumes in the corona caused by solar eruptions.

Meanwhile, the moon began to carve the sun into a toenail-thin sliver above Fort Worth, Texas.

Then, just before totality, the diamond ring effect could be seen. As the final beads of sunlight zipped through the valleys on the moon's limb, the two bodies appeared in the sky as a ring studded with brilliant diamonds.

Later, in space, the European Space Agency's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite captured the shadow of the moon sweeping across North America.

The eclipse passed over Cleveland, Ohio, where the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Guardians were just about to face off. Baseball fans and players alike flocked to the field to capture photos of the eclipse; this image shows a composite of the partial and total phases of the eclipse as seen from Progressive Field.

During totality, the sun's corona shone in the darkened sky, high above the stadium lights at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio.

When the eclipse passed over Dallas, Texas, a NASA photographer caught the entire progression on camera. This composite image shows both partial phases of the eclipse on the left and right, with the corona visible during the moment of totality in the center.

Solar prominences (enormous loops of plasma that tower over the sun's surface) were visible during totality to those with telescopes and telephoto cameras. Each prominence is many times taller than Earth.

The partial phases of the eclipse were visible over the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., as this composite NASA image shows.

The final rays of the sun peeked over the mountians of the moon just seconds before totality began in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Clouds obscured much of the total phase of the eclipse at Niagara Falls, where millions of people flocked to both the U.S. an Canadian sides of the river to witness the spectacle. While the corona is obscured in this image, the horizon glows with the 360-degree sunset effect that's synonymous with totality.

Not far away in Hamilton, Ontario, eclipse chasers flocked to the edge of Lake Ontario for a view of totality. Here, the partial phase of the eclipse begins above a haze of clouds, as seen through a pair of orange-tinted solar eclipse glasses.

The sun's corona shines in the dark sky during totality over Glover, Vermont.

No less spectacular is Mizar the dog, who awaited the total solar eclipse at the Sacre Coeur de Beauvoir Sanctuary in Sherbrook, Canada.

The eclipse bathed the sky in ethereal light above Torreon, Mexico.

The moon descending upon the sun created the conditions for this moody photograph, taken through cloud cover, in Brady, Texas.

Only the slenderest hair of sunlight remains in this photo from Eagle Pass, Texas

Under a blanket of clouds, the moon pockets the sun beneath the angel atop Princes' Gates in Toronto.

The partial solar eclipse seen through cloud cover at Niagara Falls, New York.

The moon passes in front of the sun behind the Washington Monument during the partial solar eclipse in Washington DC.

The partial solar eclipse stuns among billowing clouds atop the dome of the U.S Capitol Building on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

The sun reaches totality in Houlton, Maine, before passing over New Brunswick, then Newfoundland and out into the Atlantic ocean.

Today (April 8), a total solar eclipse will sweep across 15 U.S. states, plunging a 115-mile-wide (185 kilometers), 10,000-mile-long (16,000 km) path into sudden darkness as the moon's enormous shadow glides across the face of the sun.

It's a cosmic coin trick that has always evoked feelings of both awe and dread in skywatchers down on Earth, and eclipses have been interpreted throughout history as messages from gods, bad omens or heralds of imminent apocalypses.

In the present, scientists know a lot more about eclipses (and are even chasing today's eclipse down in jet planes) but that doesn't mean that all of humanity's fears around the celestial events have been assuaged.

Thankfully, many of these myths have already been debunked by NASA, including one popular claim that total solar eclipses produce especially harmful rays that can cause blindness.

Related: 2024 solar eclipse map: Where to see the eclipse on April 8

"During a total solar eclipse when the disk of the moon fully covers the sun, the brilliant corona emits only electromagnetic radiation, though sometimes with a greenish hue," NASA wrote in a blog post for the 2017 Great American Eclipse. The sun's corona — its hot, outer atmosphere — peeks out from around the moon during a total eclipse and will look spiky, like a hedgehog, due to this radiation.

"Scientists have studied this radiation for centuries," the post reads. "Being a million times fainter than the light from the sun itself, there is nothing in the coronal light that could cross 150 million kilometers of space, penetrate our dense atmosphere, and cause blindness."

This is true during totality, the only time it's safe to view the eclipse with bare eyes. But during partial phases of the eclipse, when the sun isn't yet covered up, staring at it can cause permanent damage to the retina. Rarely, this damage can cause blindness.

NASA notes, since the sun's glare can cause this retinal damage, you should only look at the partial eclipse directly with certified glasses or indirectly with your own eclipse viewer.

Despite not producing any especially harmful light, total eclipses do have a remarkable, brief impact upon the areas they move through, causing temperatures to suddenly drop and clouds to halt and even dissipate in the sky.

The total solar eclipse in North America is finally underway. Over the next several hours, day will turn into night for nearly 44 million people across Mexico, the U.S. and Canada as the moon crosses in front of the sun, blocking all sunlight for a precious few minutes.

If you can't make the event in person — or want to see a zoomed-in view of the partial and total phases of the eclipse — you can tune in to NASA's live webcast of the rare celestial event right here on Live Science,  starting at 1 p.m. ET.

At 9:51 a.m. local time (12:51 p.m. ET) on Mexico's western coast, skywatchers in Mazatlán will be the first to plunge into darkness as the moon fully masks the sun, marking the beginning of totality. The path of the eclipse will then cross three other Mexican cities before moving into the U.S., starting in Texas and moving on to cross or touch 14 other states. It will exit North America from Canada's Newfoundland at 5:16 p.m. local time (3:46 p.m. ET).

Those lucky enough to be within or near the 115-mile-wide (185 kilometers) path of totality will be able to witness a series of rare phenomena, including a few unique to the total solar eclipse. Here's what to expect.

Related: April 8 solar eclipse: What time does totality start in every state?

The diamond ring

Of all the eclipse-related phenomena, the most breathtaking may be the dazzling ring of light that appears seconds before the sun's bright disk is masked by the moon. Known as the "diamond-ring effect," this event repeats as totality ends when the sun starts becoming visible once again.

Baily's beads

As you watch the moon's silhouette during the eclipse, you may notice a sliver of sunlight appearing to form a string of beads. Known as "Baily's beads," the bright spots are caused by sunlight shining through the mountains and valleys on the moon's uneven surface.

Shadow bands

Meanwhile, on Earth, thin, wavy light and dark stripes will dance on the ground just before and after totality. These eerie shadow bands are unique to a total solar eclipse and occur due to the same phenomenon that makes stars twinkle: rippling distortions in Earth's upper atmosphere filters bits and pieces of already-choked sunlight, which forms a visible pattern on solid-colored surfaces. As totality approaches, the brightening pattern shifts from being jumbled to organized, and it returns to a dimming chaotic design after totality ends.

Stars, planets and a 'Mother of Dragons' comet

NASA estimates that every location within the path of totality will experience darkness for up to four minutes. Thanks to the drop in sunlight, you may be able to see bright stars and planets in the daytime sky. Venus will appear about 15 degrees west-southwest of the sun while Jupiter will make an appearance about 30 degrees east-northeast of the sun.

In Jupiter's vicinity, the well-known green comet 12P/Pons-Brooks — also called the "Mother of Dragons comet" — may be visible. The icy, city-size space rock, which is on a 71-year orbit around the sun and began erupting last July, may be seen moving in front of stars during the eclipse. However, you will likely need a pair of stargazing binoculars to view this one, as its diffused light will be too faint to pick up with the naked eye.

Other planets including Saturn, Mars and Mercury may be visible depending on local weather conditions. Some of the brightest stars in our sky, such as Sirius, Capella and Rigel, may also be seen among a scattering of other stars.

Rings of light

While those outside the path of totality will miss out on these spectacles, skywatchers in all 48 contiguous U.S. states will see at least a partial eclipse for up to 1 hour and 20 minutes, according to NASA. During a partial eclipse, people near trees may see countless crescent-like light features appear on the ground. These "rings of light" form because sunlight shines through tiny spaces between leaves, causing them to behave like pinhole projectors and cast the sun's crescent shape onto the ground.

Today (April 8), the moon will completely block the sun's disk, plunging parts of 15 U.S. states along the eclipse's path of totality into eerie darkness during the daytime. Meanwhile, viewers across the entire contiguous U.S. will be able to see a partial solar eclipse.

To view the partial phases of the eclipse, no matter where you are, you need to use protective eyewear such as solar eclipse glasses. Failure to do so could result in permanent eye damage, according to NASA.

If you still need a pair of certified solar eclipse glasses before the climax of the total solar eclipse in North America today, you may not be out of luck yet.

Where can I buy solar eclipse glasses in person today?

There are many local businesses that may still have solar glasses in stock today.

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) — the agency responsible for certifying that solar eclipse glasses meet safety regulations — has a list of stores that sell certified eclipse glasses. Try calling a store near you to see if any glasses are in stock. Participating stores include:

• Walmart: Solar eclipse glasses, binoculars and apparel 
• Lowe's: Solar eclipse glasses in-store
• Target: Discounted ISO-certified solar glasses
• Walmart: Solar glasses, binoculars and filters available
• Staples: Solar eclipse multipack available
• Best Buy: Solar glasses, viewers, telescopes and binoculars
• B&H Photo Video: Binoculars, glasses and telescopes
• Adorama: Solar glasses, filters, binoculars and cameras
• Meijer: Solar eclipse glasses and smartphone filters
• Kroger
• 7-Eleven
• Wegmans
• H-E-B
• Menards

To help avoid counterfeit glasses and scams today, make sure your eclipse glasses include an ISO logo on them to show they meet the international safety standard ISO 12312-2. Check your glasses for any scrapes or rips on the lenses, and try them out using a bright lamp at home before using them to look directly at the sun. You should only be able to see the dimmest speck of light from your lightbulb.

While it's likely too late to order a pair online, many brick-and-mortar businesses may still have eclipse glasses in stock today. In addition, hundreds of libraries and universities across the country have been doling out free pairs of glasses for the last several weeks and may still be able to hook you up.

April 8 solar eclipse: What time does totality start in every state?

Here's everything you need to know about finding certified solar eclipse glasses before the big event this afternoon.

Where can I get free solar eclipse glasses near me?

If snagging a pair of free solar eclipse glasses is your goal, you may be out of luck this time.

Many libraries, universities and certain businesses have been offering free pairs of eclipse glasses for several months now; whether or not they still have any supplies in stock will depend entirely on your location and how close to the path of totality you are.

Try calling your local library branch or university right away to see if they still have any glasses in stock. Check out this map of participating libraries for more info.

Meanwhile, Warby Parker has been offering free eclipse glasses in stores since April 1.

If you are attending a solar eclipse viewing party today, they may have free pairs of glasses in stock. Check your local listings for viewing events near you.

Do I need solar eclipse glasses?

Totality — the moment when the sun is completely blocked by the moon — is the ONLY safe time to view the eclipse with the naked eye. To do so, you MUST be within the path of totality. (These 2024 eclipse maps will tell you if you are.)

To view the partial phases of today's solar eclipse, which last about 1 hour and 20 minutes before and after totality, you MUST wear protective eyewear — whether you are in the path of totality or not.

You don't necessarily need solar eclipse glasses to enjoy the partial eclipse. If you can't find a pair, you can try indirectly viewing the eclipse by looking at shadows projected on the floor or wall by a pasta strainer or colander; making a homemade eclipse viewer; or watching a free live stream. Here are seven safe ways to view the partial phases of the eclipse today.

Flying a plane into the moon's shadow during a total solar eclipse is a hot topic thanks to the upcoming solar eclipse on April 8. JSX has a dedicated eclipse flight over Dallas, and both United Airlines and Delta have long sold out tickets for scheduled flights through the path of totality on journeys from Texas to the Northeast.

But none will come close to achieving what Concorde 001 did on June 30, 1973, when it raced the moon's shadow along the Tropic of Cancer during a total solar eclipse.

Flying at 55,000 feet (17,000 meters), the world's fastest supersonic jet extended the duration of totality from a maximum of 7 minutes, 4 seconds on the ground to a stunning 74 minutes.

For the seven observers from France, Britain and the U.S., the flight broke the record for the longest total solar eclipse in human history. With the supersonic jet long retired from service, Concorde's historic 1973 flight remains legendary for eclipse chasers.

Record-breaking flight

On June 30, 1973, Concorde took off from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in the Spanish Canary Islands.

The path of totality that day was about 156 miles (251 kilometers) wide where Concorde intercepted it, with the moon's shadow moving at about 1,500 mph (2,400 km/h). Concorde flew at 1,350 mph (2,200 km/h)  — Mach 2 — along the path of totality in the same direction as the moon's shadow, thereby keeping up with it as long as possible.

Related: What's the longest solar eclipse in history? (And how does the April 2024 total eclipse compare?)

The scientists on board came from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Paris Observatory, the Kitt Peak National Observatory, Queen Mary University of London, the University of Aberdeen, and the French National Center for Scientific Research.

Concorde 001 was modified just for them, with rooftop portholes created for observation equipment. The extra-long totality allowed these scientists to study the sun's corona, its chromosphere and the intensity of the sun's light from above much of Earth's atmosphere.

"We intercepted the totality and stayed within it for 74 minutes before descending and landing in the African nation of Chad," Donald Liebenberg, a scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory who was on board the flight, wrote for NBC News. "At 74 minutes, our group aboard the Concorde set a record for the amount of time spent in totality that has never been broken. It was an experience I will never forget."

Concorde took off at 1008 GMT and raced above Mauritania as the moon's shadow caught up with it. Over the next four minutes, it flew across the Sahara in Mali, Nigeria and Niger before the moon's shadow overtook it. It landed in Chad.

In addition to experiencing the long totality, the scientists saw a seven-minute "first contact" and a 12-minute "third contact" — the beginning and end of the eclipse when viewers on the ground see a brief display of Baily's beads and the "diamond ring effect."

The 1973 flight wasn't the last time Concorde entered the moon's shadow during a total solar eclipse. Twenty-six years later, on Aug. 11, 1999, three Concordes — one from France and two from the U.K. — entered the moon's shadow, carrying tourists, as documented by French eclipse expert Xavier Jubier. Each paid $2,400 ($4,457 in today's dollars), though totality lasted only four or five minutes, compared with about two minutes on the ground. However, the passengers had problems seeing totality for more than 30 seconds because of the small windows and the sun's height.

It's a reminder that intercepting the moon's shadow in a plane isn't easy.

Final trip

The 1999 trips were Concorde's last into the path of totality. After the fatal crash of Air France Flight 4590 on July 25, 2000, just after takeoff, a planned eclipse flight on June 21, 2001, was canceled.

The most successful eclipse flight in recent years was E-Flight 2019-MAX, which on July 2, 2019, doubled the totality duration from 4 minutes, 32 seconds to 9 minutes. On board the LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner were 43 eclipse chasers, each of whom had paid $6,750.

Eclipse flights continue to spark the imagination, but it will be a long time until it's possible to surpass Concorde 001's 1973 achievement.

Originally posted on Space.com.

It's finally here: Today, (April 8) a total solar eclipse will pass across the skies North America, giving more than 33 million people living in 15 U.S. states a rare view of the totally-obstructed sun, and — weather permitting — a taste of some seriously strange eclipse phenomena.

If you’re wondering where the total and partial phases of the eclipse will be visible, the good news is that almost everyone in the contiguous U.S. will be able to see the celestial spectacle to some extent. But for a more detailed view of the eclipse’s path, take a look at these handy eclipse maps, courtesy of GreatAmericanEclipse.com. 

Solar eclipse 2024 path of totality map

Totality is the moment that every eclipse-chaser lives for: The moment when the moon completely covers the sun’s face, resulting in a brief but eerie darkness in the daytime. The path of totality, shown in the map above, is the path of the moon’s shadow across Earth’s surface. 

On Monday (April 8), totality will begin in Sinaloa, Mexico, then move northeast up to Texas, ultimately crossing 15 states before moving on to Canada. The states where totality will be visible are: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine — although Tennessee and Michigan will only be glanced by the moon's shadow.

Related: April 8 solar eclipse: What time does totality start in every state?

Viewers MUST be within the path of totality to witness the total phase of the eclipse; if you are off the path by even a mile, you will only see a partial eclipse, and miss out on the spooky daytime darkness. Furthermore, the closer you are to the center of the path of totality, the longer totality will last for you — up to a maximum duration of 4 minutes, 27 seconds in Torreón, Mexico.

Note: Totality is the ONLY TIME when it is safe to view the sun without protective eyewear like certified solar eclipse glasses. You must protect your eyes during the entire partial phase of the eclipse, no matter where you are.

Solar eclipse 2024 partial eclipse map

If you live in the U.S. and can’t make it to the path of totality, a partial eclipse still awaits you on April 8. The entire contiguous U.S. will have some view of the partial eclipse, ranging from 99% coverage of the sun just off the path of totality to about 15% coverage far to the northwest of the path.

The map above shows how much of the sun’s disk will be blocked from your location. Watching the partial phases of the eclipse — which last about an hour and 20 minutes before and after totality — means wearing protective eyewear at all times. Failure to do so could result in permanent eye damage, according to NASA.

If you want to experience the celestial spectacle but don’t have a pair of eclipse glasses handy, there are many other ways to safely enjoy the partial eclipse. These include making a homemade pinhole projector, using a pasta strainer to project the shadow of the moon onto the ground or watching one of the various eclipse live streams available.

2024 eclipse travel maps

If you want to see totality but don’t live within the path, driving or taking public transit to a city within the path may be possible. The map above shows how far the drive is to the path of totality, based on where you’re coming from. Meanwhile, the map below shows the most populated cities within the path of totality — many of which are expected to be flooded with millions of eclipse tourists on April 8.

The biggest cities within the path of totality include: San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth in Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Hamilton and Montreal in Canada; and Torreón and Mazatlan in Mexico.

Wherever you are on April 8, we wish you clear skies and protected eyes during this rare, wondrous eclipse over North America.

The sun seems to be taking an unexpected nap right now — just in time for the April 8 total solar eclipse on Monday. 

Until recently, solar activity has been very high, which has raised hopes that we may be able to see solar storms shooting out of our home star during totality — the period when the sun is completely blocked out by the moon. But this now seems unlikely, according to the latest space weather forecasts. 

However, if you can get an unobstructed view of our home star from somewhere along the path of totality, it should still look much more impressive than during most other eclipses, experts say. 

The sun is currently nearing solar maximum, the explosive peak of its roughly 11-year solar cycle when dark sunspots litter the sun's surface and frequently spit out powerful solar storms. Some experts believe that this phase may have already begun, around a year earlier than initially forecast. But we will not know for sure until long after it is over.

Over the last two months, solar activity has been exceptionally high. We have seen gigantic sunspots, frequent X-class solar flares (the most powerful class of solar explosion) and towering plasma plumes. On March 23, Earth also experienced its biggest geomagnetic storm in more than six years after a giant cloud of plasma and radiation, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), smashed into the planet.

Related: April 8 solar eclipse: What time does totality start in every state?

Right now, however, the sun is surprisingly quiet. There are just a couple of active sunspot regions on the sun's nearside to Earth, which are much smaller than those we have seen in the last few weeks, according to Spaceweather.com. The orientation of these regions' magnetic fields also hints that there is a low chance they will be spitting out solar flares or CMEs between now and the eclipse, according to Earthsky.com. 

But just because solar storms are unlikely doesn't mean the eclipse will be any less spectacular. Due to the sun's currently weakened magnetic field, the corona — the outer part of the sun's atmosphere, which looks like a ghostly halo when viewed during a total eclipse — will still be much more prominent than it is during other periods of the solar cycle.

The radiation streaming from the sun will make the corona look like a "spiky hedgehog" during the eclipse, Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, told Live Science in an email.  

There will also be lots of other interesting stuff for observers to look out for during the eclipse, including stars, planets and the "devil comet," 12P/Pons-Broos, which will be in close proximity to the sun during the eclipse.

However, if you are planning to take a peep at the sun during totality, make sure to do so safely. Totality is the ONLY time it is safe to look at the sun without eye protection — and you MUST be within the path of totality to do so. At all other times during the partial phases of the eclipse, you must wear a decent pair of eclipse glasses, or use other forms of eye protection, such as a pinhole projector or a good solar telescope.

On April 8 a total solar eclipse will be visible through northern Mexico, parts of 15 U.S. states and southeastern Canada. That's just a few days away!

It will be one of the most-watched eclipses ever with over 32 million people living within the path of totality — a 115-mile (185-kilometer) wide route through Northern America where the moon will cover 100% of the sun's disk.

If you cannot witness the solar eclipse in person, you can watch all the action unfold here on Live Science's sister site Space.com courtesy of NASA. The livestream coverage begins at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Monday. You can also keep up with all the eclipse content with the total solar eclipse live blog and count down to what is expected to be the skywatching event of the year.

During a total solar eclipse, the moon moves between Earth and the sun, appearing almost exactly the same size as the sun. During totality, the moon blocks the entire solar disk for a few minutes (the duration of totality depends on where you are viewing it from).

Total solar eclipse livestreams

This list will be updated as more livestreams become available as we approach the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

Timeanddate livestream

Skywatching website timeanddate.com will be covering the total solar eclipse from start to finish with their livestream and live blog that will feature real-time progress reports and background information.

NASA livestream

Watch the total solar eclipse 2024 live with NASA as it moves across North America on April 8, 2024, traveling through Mexico, across the United States from Texas to Maine, and out across Canada's Atlantic coast.

The livestream will be running from 1 to 4 p.m. EDT (1700 to 2000 GMT) on April 8, During the broadcast NASA will be sharing conversations with experts and provide telescope views of the eclipse from several sites along the eclipse path. Make sure to send in your questions in the chat using #askNASA for a chance to have them answered live.

Related: 4 ways you can help NASA study the April 8 solar eclipse

UMaine livestream from the stratosphere

The University of Maine's livestream from the stratosphere takes eclipse viewing to a whole new level. 

UMaine is among 75 institutions comprising 53 teams nationwide to participate in the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project led by Montana State University (MSU). The project aims to broaden the participation of STEM learners from various higher education institutions by collecting valuable data from scientific ballooning.

McDonald observatory livestream

The McDonald Observatory, an astronomical research facility part of the University of Texas will be livestreaming the total solar eclipse on April 8. 

"Join us as we talk about eclipses, what causes them, how to safely view them and watch the peak of the eclipse from three locations in Texas: McDonald Observatory, Lake Buchanan, and Irving." said the McDonald Observatory in a statement on their YouTube livestream. 

Notable locations for the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

Originally posted on Space.com.

Today (April 8), a total solar eclipse will plunge parts of 15 U.S. states into sudden darkness as the moon's enormous shadow sweeps across the continent.

Crossing northeast from Mexico to Canada over the course of several hours, the April 8 total solar eclipse will be visible to an estimated 44 million people who live in the path of totality — the path of the moon's shadow, and the only place where the total phase of the eclipse will be visible — while a partial eclipse will be visible across nearly the entire U.S.

Here's everything you need to know about solar eclipses, and how to safely view today's spectacular celestial event safely.

What is a total solar eclipse?

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between Earth and the sun. From our perspective, the moon appears to block the sun's entire face, projecting its vast shadow onto our planet. While the moon gets between Earth and the sun every month during its new moon phase, it takes a precise combination of factors for this to result in a solar eclipse.

Where to see the April 8 total solar eclipse

The total eclipse will only be visible along the 115-mile-wide (185 kilometers), 10,000-mile-long (16,000 km) path of totality. The path begins in Sinaloa, Mexico, crosses 15 U.S. states, then passes through the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland before leaving the continent.

The U.S. states where totality will be visible are Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine — although Tennessee and Michigan will only be glanced by the moon's shadow.

Only in these states will the total phase of the eclipse be visible; and even in these states, you will need to be within the path of totality to see the total eclipse. The closer you can get to the center of the path of totality, and the further southwest you are, the longer totality will be visible for, with a maximum duration of 4 minutes, 27 seconds in Torreón, Mexico. For more information on the length and time of totality in various cities, check out the Great American Eclipse website.

Related: 10 weird things that happen during a solar eclipse

Where will the partial eclipse be visible?

The partial phase of the eclipse will be visible to some extent across the entire contiguous United States, ranging from a 99% partial eclipse in areas just outside the path of totality to a 15% partial eclipse far to the northwest of the path. Here's what you can expect to see in your location.

Where can I find maps of the solar eclipse?

If you are unsure exactly where the path of totality will cross, how much you will see if you are outside this path, or how much time you need to drive to the point of totality, these solar eclipse maps will help you plan your experience. 

How to safely view the eclipse

To view the partial phases of the eclipse you MUST wear protective eyewear, such as a pair of ISO-certified solar eclipse glasses, at all times. This is true whether or not you are in the path of totality.

To be clear: No matter where you are on April 8, NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE PARTIAL ECLIPSE without protective eyewear, or you could risk permanent eye damage.

The ONLY TIME it is safe to look at the eclipse with the naked eye is during the few minutes of totality, when the sun's face is completely blocked by the moon, according to NASA. Only viewers within the path of totality will be able to remove their solar glasses to experience this moment.

Other safe ways to view the partial phase of the eclipse include using a handheld eclipse viewer, looking through a solar telescope or binoculars equipped with a solar filter, or watching a NASA livestream from home.

Related: 7 safe ways to view the partial phases of the total solar eclipse

Can I record the eclipse with my phone?

Yes, it is possible to record parts of the eclipse successfully on your phone, but it does come with risks to both your camera and potentially your own eyesight, especially during the partial phases of the where you run the risk of accidentally looking at the sun while you are trying to line up your shot. This is why when setting up your camera it is advisable to wear solar glasses even when you are not looking directly at the sun. 

The only safe way to take an image of a partial eclipse is to use the same type of filter as those found in solar eclipse glasses, or a ready-made smartphone solar filter.

The only time it is safe to take photos of the eclipse without a filter is during the brief period of totality, but there are a number of things you can do at this point to help you take the best possible photos and video of the eclipse on your smartphone.

What time does the eclipse start?

The eclipse makes landfall at Mazatlán, Sinaloa, at 9:51 a.m. local time (12:51 p.m. EDT), according to Time and Date. The moon's shadow will cross the continent for several hours before reaching the sea near the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador at 5:16 p.m. local time (3:46 p.m. EDT).

Here is when totality will occur in the 13 states where it will be widely visible.

What will happen during totality?

Depending on how clear the skies are, totality could bring a parade of strange phenomena with it.

As the moon's shadow approaches, there'll be a significant drop in temperature, usually between 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 to 5.6 degrees Celsius). As the ground cools, low-level clouds may disappear.

About 30 seconds before totality, wavy lines known as shadow bands may appear on the sides of buildings and vehicles. Just a few seconds before totality, look up (while wearing your eclipse glasses) and you may see Bailey's beads appear around the edge of the moon; these dazzling dots are the last bits of sunlight peeking through the mountains on the moon.

If the skies are clear, totality will bring a wall of darkness that turns midday to twilight. Only then can you remove your eclipse glasses. Bright stars and planets may be visible in the darkened sky, while a 360-degree sunset may appear on the horizon. Animals may act strangely, growing eerily quiet and assuming their nighttime behaviors. Colors will look different, with greens and blues popping while reds look dimmer. When the sun is fully eclipsed, its corona, or outer atmosphere, will be clearly visible behind the dark moon.

After a few minutes, totality will end, and you must put your eclipse glasses on again.

What if it's cloudy out?

Various eclipse phenomena will still be visible, depending on the extent and type of cloud cover in the area. Here's more information on what to expect if there are clouds around on the day.

How often do total solar eclipses occur?

Total solar eclipses aren't rare; they happen somewhere on Earth every 18 months, on average. However, it's rare that a total solar eclipse is visible from a populated area, and rarer still for an eclipse to cross North America.

The last total solar eclipse in the United States was on Aug. 21, 2017, sweeping westward across 14 states from Oregon to South Carolina. A total solar eclipse occurs in the same place on Earth once every 366 years, on average.

When is the next solar eclipse in North America?

The next total solar eclipse visible in North America occurs on March 30, 2033 — however, only parts of Alaska will see totality.

A total solar eclipse on Aug. 22, 2044, will be visible in parts of Montana and North Dakota. Another total eclipse less than one year later, on Aug. 12, 2045, will be visible from northern California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

We live in a light-polluted world, where streetlamps, electronic ads and even backyard lighting block out all but the brightest celestial objects in the night sky. But travel to an officially protected "Dark Sky" area, gaze skyward and be amazed.

This is the view of the heavens people had for millennia. Pre-modern societies watched the sky and created cosmographies, maps of the skies that provided information for calendars and agricultural cycles. They also created cosmologies, which, in the original use of the word, were religious beliefs to explain the universe. The gods and the heavens were inseparable.

The skies are orderly and cyclical in nature, so watch and record long enough and you will determine their rhythms. Many societies were able to accurately predict lunar eclipses, and some could also predict solar eclipses — like the one that will occur over North America on April 8, 2024.

The path of totality, where the Moon will entirely block the Sun, will cross into Mexico on the Pacific coast before entering the United States in Texas, where I teach the history of technology and science, and will be seen as a partial eclipse across the lands of the ancient Maya. This follows the October 2023 annular eclipse, when it was possible to observe the "ring of fire" around the Sun from many ancient Maya ruins and parts of Texas.

A millennia ago, two such solar eclipses over the same area within six months would have seen Maya astronomers, priests and rulers leap into a frenzy of activity. I have seen a similar frenzy — albeit for different reasons — here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where we will be in the path of totality. During this period between the two eclipses, I have felt privileged to share my interest in the history of astronomy with students and the community.

Ancient astronomers

The ancient Maya were arguably one of the greatest sky-watching
societies. Accomplished mathematicians, they recorded systematic observations on the motion of the Sun, planets and stars.

From these observations, they created a complex calendar system to regulate their world — one of the most accurate of pre-modern times.

Astronomers closely observed the Sun and aligned monumental structures, such as pyramids, to track solstices and equinoxes. They also utilized these structures, as well as caves and wells, to mark the zenith days — the two times a year in the tropics where the Sun is directly overhead and vertical objects cast no shadow.

Maya scribes kept accounts of the astronomical observations in codices, hieroglyphic folding books made from fig bark paper. The Dresden Codex, one of the four remaining ancient Maya texts, dates to the 11th century. Its pages contain a wealth of astronomical knowledge and religious interpretations and provide evidence that the Maya could predict solar eclipses.

From the codex's astronomical tables, researchers know that the Maya tracked the lunar nodes, the two points where the orbit of the Moon intersects with the ecliptic — the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, which from our point of view is the path of the Sun through our sky. They also created tables divided into the 177-day solar eclipse seasons, marking days where eclipses were possible.

Heavenly battle

But why invest so much in tracking the skies?

Knowledge is power. If you kept accounts of what happened at the time of certain celestial events, you could be forewarned and take proper precautions when cycles repeated themselves. Priests and rulers would know how to act, which rituals to perform and which sacrifices to make to the gods to guarantee that the cycles of destruction, rebirth and renewal continued.

In the Maya's belief system, sunsets were associated with death and decay. Every evening the sun god, Kinich Ahau, made the perilous journey through Xibalba, the Maya underworld, to be born anew at sunrise. Solar eclipses were seen as a "broken sun" — a sign of possible cataclysmic destruction.

Kinich Ahau was associated with prosperity and good order. His brother Chak Ek – the morning star, which we now know as the planet Venus — was associated with war and discord. They had an adversarial relationship, fighting for supremacy.

Their battle could be witnessed in the heavens. During solar eclipses, planets, stars and sometimes comets can be seen during totality. If positioned properly, Venus will shine brightly near the eclipsed Sun, which the Maya interpreted as Chak Ek on the attack. This is hinted at in the Dresden Codex, where a diving Venus god appears in the solar eclipse tables, and in the coordination of solar eclipses with the Venus cycles in the Madrid Codex, another Maya folding book from the late 15th century.

With Kinich Ahau — the Sun — hidden behind the Moon, the Maya believed he was dying. Renewal rituals were necessary to restore balance and set him back on his proper course.

Nobility, especially the king, would perform bloodletting sacrifices, piercing their bodies and collecting the blood drops to burn as offerings to the sun god. This "blood of kings" was the highest form of sacrifice, meant to strengthen Kinich Ahau. Maya believed the creator gods had given their blood and mixed it with maize dough to create the first humans. In turn, the nobility gave a small portion of their own life force to nourish the gods.

Time stands still

In the lead-up to April's eclipse, I feel as if I am completing a personal cycle of my own, bringing me back to earlier career paths: first as an aerospace engineer who loved her orbital mechanics classes and enjoyed backyard astronomy; and then as a history doctoral student, studying how Maya culture persisted after the Spanish conquest.

For me, just like the ancient Maya, the total solar eclipse will be a chance to not only look up but also to consider both past and future. Viewing the eclipse is something our ancestors have done since time immemorial and will do far into the future. It is awesome in the original sense of the word: For a few moments it seems as if time both stops, as all eyes turn skyward, and converges, as we take part in the same spectacle as our ancestors and descendants.

And whether you believe in divine messages, battles between Venus and the Sun, or in the beauty of science and the natural world, this event brings people together. It is humbling, and it is also very, very cool.

I just hope that Kinich Ahau will grace us with his presence in a cloudless sky and once again vanquish Venus, which is a morning star on April 8.

This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

An observer in or near the path of totality for the April 8 solar eclipse may be witness to many unusual phenomena, including the appearance of the moon's shadow projected on the Earth's atmosphere, and darkness during the daytime.

For the upcoming eclipse, a few minutes before the start of totality, a conspicuous shadow should appear, mimicking an approaching storm, moving from the west-southwest sky and toward the observer. Darkness will follow, and with it the chance to see stars, planets and possibly other bright objects in the daytime sky. 

Here's what to look for during totality, and where in the sky to look.

Related: April 8 solar eclipse: What time does totality start in every state?

Exotic colors and lighting

I've often been asked, why bother traveling to an eclipse? My answer is always the same: "You must see one for yourself, and then you will understand." Astronomy writer Guy Ottewell planned to create a painting of the 1983 eclipse visible from Borobudur in Java. He later wrote in his book, "The Under-Standing of Eclipses: 

"During the minutes of totality, I was conscious of being in a different visual world; of trying to memorize colors for which I had no names, which would be as hard to recall or describe as a taste."

For those witnessing the total phase, the moon's shadow overhead appears a dusky blue (if there are no clouds), and the light from outside its edge forms a bright border around the horizon. The saffron tint of air outside an eclipse shadow may be especially impressive. Since air scatters long wavelengths of light less than short, the light from outside the shadow is yellowed or reddened, the exact color depending on the distance from the shadow edge to the observer. 

At 50 miles or more, the bright reddening glow is pronounced and the bright tawny glow is low. Since at the upcoming eclipse, one can be as far as 50 to 60 miles (80 to 100 kilometers) from the shadow's edge — if positioned on the center line of the eclipse path — some vivid colorations may be evident, especially toward the northwest and southeast at mid-totality.

A view from the outside the path of totality

Outside the path of totality, even at a considerable distance, the moon's shadow can sometimes be seen projected against the atmosphere. At the eclipse of July 9, 1945, the shadow was seen near the horizon from Portland, Oregon, 320 miles (515 km) west of the point where the eclipse was first total at sunrise. Also, at the eclipse of October 2, 1959, which was total in eastern Massachusetts, the shadow was visible on the northeastern horizon to an observer only 15 miles (24 km) northeast of New York City. The smaller the distance from the path of totality, the better the chance of seeing the shadow.

There are several methods of observing the degree of darkness at mid-eclipse. One way is to note the smallest size of newsprint that is legible. This can be done even when the sky is overcast, but the type and extent of cloud cover should be carefully recorded. Also, useful and even better than visual techniques are good all-sky photographs (using a fish-eye lens or wide-angle convex mirrors), or photometric measurements with photoelectric meters.

A second way is to note the faintest star or planet visible.

Cameo appearance by stars and planets

When the sun is totally eclipsed, the sky does not (as many astronomy guidebooks suggest) appear "as dark as a moonlit night." Rather, it gets about as dark as it is about 20 to 40 minutes before sunrise or 20 to 40 minutes after sunset. In such a sky, Venus is usually very conspicuous, and other bright planets and 1st-magnitude stars near the sun have also been reported.

Venus by far will be the brightest object at visual magnitude -3.9 (in astronomy, the lower the magnitude, the brighter the object). On eclipse day, it will be positioned about 15 degrees to the west (lower right) of the sun. Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10 degrees, so Venus will be situated about "one and a half fists" from the sun. Jupiter, second in brightness to Venus at magnitude -2.0, will lie 30 degrees to the east (upper left) of the sun.

There will be other planets around, but it's debatable whether they will be readily visible. Saturn (magnitude +1.1) and Mars (magnitude +1.2) will be, respectively, 35 and 36-degrees to the west of the sun. Little Mercury will stand a half-dozen degrees to the east of the sun, but at a very faint magnitude +4.3, so it will be invisible.

So far as stars are concerned, this eclipse will give you a fine opportunity to gauge the brightness of the sky since the bright stars of the winter season will be well-placed across much of the eastern part of the sky. Low toward the east-southeast is Sirius, the brightest of all stars at magnitude -1.5. If, however, you are located along the totality path in Texas or Mexico, you won't see it because it will be below the horizon. 

Capella (magnitude +0.1) will be high in the east-northeast, while Rigel (magnitude +0.2) will be much lower in the southeast. A few fainter stars of the first magnitude may appear here and there, but the light of the corona (the sun's outer atmosphere) as well as the general scattering of light filtering in from outside of the umbra will quench most of the stars.

Then again...

But perhaps using your totality time to try and pick out stars and planets is not the way to go. A well-known aficionado of stars and constellations was George Lovi (1939-1993), who for over two decades wrote the popular "Rambling Through the Skies" column in Sky & Telescope magazine. Mr. Lovi often expounded on the beauty of the totally eclipsed sun as viewed through binoculars or even through a camera's telephoto lens. "The human eye," he wrote, "has an unmatched ability to view subtle details within the inner and outer corona, in a way no emulsion can."

But then he'd also argue about those who engaged themselves in what he referred to as the "sometimes ridiculous efforts" to hunt down stars and planets during the total phase of the eclipse. "Some devotees spend virtually all those precious minutes searching!" he would rant, adding, "I can't for the life of me imagine how this compares to the main event!"

To that end, I would agree with Mr. Lovi (myself having journeyed to 13 total eclipses); you probably would do better to spend a good part of your precious totality time concentrating on viewing the solar corona.

As one person later said to me in the aftermath of spending all of his time trying to unsuccessfully photograph a total eclipse:

"I, therefore, came to the conclusion, and it represents a bit of wisdom, gained at great expense and hardship, which I feel compelled to pass on to other enthusiasts, and that is, the best possible way to see an eclipse is simply LOOK AT IT!"

This might be the best piece of advice for anybody who intends to observe the spectacle of a total eclipse of the sun. So, remember, should you get your chance at one, indeed, just LOOK at it and ENJOY it.

After all, even in 2024, a few minutes of wonder is all you're going to get!

To safely view all of this event, you must use solar filters. Only those in the path of totality will be able to remove them briefly to see the sun's corona with their naked eyes. Those not in the path of totality must keep them on the entire time.

Everyone observing the partial phases of this eclipse — and for those outside the path of totality, that's the entire event — will need to wear solar eclipse glasses while cameras, telescopes and binoculars will need solar filters placed in front of their lenses.

Originally posted on Space.com.

The April 8 total solar eclipse is just days away now, and while solar eclipse glasses will protect your eyes, you'll want something a little more robust if you want to take a closer look at the sun.

We reviewed the Celestron EclipSmart Safe Solar binoculars and found them to be a fantastic option for those that need to stick to a budget. And now they're even cheaper with 20% off the Celestron solar binoculars.

We think they're some of the best binoculars you can buy for solar observation because of their ISO-certified solar-safe filter technology.

All of that doesn't have to come at a hefty price, either. You can find the Celestron EclipSmart Safe Solar Eclipse Binoculars for just $69.99 at Amazon — that's a 20% discount off of the MSRP.

When testing these binoculars (where we rated them 4.5/5 stars) we were pleased to find both a carry pouch and lens caps to protect the binoculars. After a quick adjustment of the diopter ring and dialing in focus using the central focusing wheel we could see the sun immediately and safely.

We could make out the sunspots on the surface of the sun without issue and the image was not too bright coming through the eyepieces. Despite a magnification of 10x being helpful to see more detail on the sun, we found a tripod helpful because our hands were shaking a little too much — something to bear in mind if you have tremors in the hands.

Key features: Lightweight design, easy to use, solar-safe tech that meets ISO 12312-2:2015

Price history: Back in 2018, these binoculars dropped to just $42, but this is the lowest price we've seen since then and considering it's only a few days until the next total solar eclipse, and the next one is in Alaska in 2033, we think this is a great time to buy them.

Reviews consensus: These excellent binoculars are easy to get started with, making them a great choice for beginners — particularly at this price. For this price you're getting an excellent pair of binoculars that are well-made and are guaranteed to protect you from the sun.

Live Science: ★★★★½ Space: ★★★★

Buy it if: You want binoculars instead of a telescope for this month's total eclipse, and need something lightweight but well built.

Don't buy it if: You want lens caps included, or need something a little brighter.

On April 8, parts of the U.S., Canada and Mexico will be thrust into darkness as the moon glides perfectly in front of the sun, marking a total solar eclipse. Millions of eager spectators aren't the only ones who are excited; NASA engineers in Virginia plan to make the most of the precious few minutes of darkness by launching rockets directly into the eclipse's shadow.

Besides the obvious cool factor, the launches have an important science goal: to help scientists understand how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our planet's blanket of air.

The sudden transition from day to night is known to cause sharp drops in temperatures and even trick animals into engaging in nighttime behaviors. But scientists understand little about how the brief moments of darkness influence the boundary between Earth's upper and lower atmosphere, called the ionosphere, which extends between 55 to 310 miles (90 to 500 kilometers) above the planet';'s surface.

Here, ultraviolet radiation from the sun routinely pries away electrons from atoms, forming abundant electrically charged particles that puff up the upper atmosphere. It thins out upon sunset as these ions recombine into neutral atoms, only to be ripped away again next dawn.

Related: 4 ways you can help NASA study the April 8 solar eclipse

"If you think of the ionosphere as a pond with some gentle ripples on it, the eclipse is like a motorboat that suddenly rips through the water," Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering and physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said in a 2023 NASA article. "It creates a wake immediately underneath and behind it, and then the water level momentarily goes up as it rushes back in."

So, by launching three rockets before, during and after the moon's shadow turns day into night on April 8, NASA engineers hope to collect enough data to predict such disturbances, which are known to interfere with both radio and satellite communications.

So Barjatya and his team will launch three rockets from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Over this facility, the moon will block only 81.4% of the sun's light, but the team hopes to use the temporary dimming to understand just how widespread the "wake" created by the solar eclipse is.

The same team of engineers did a similar experiment during last October's partial "ring of fire" solar eclipse, when a maximum of 90% of the sun's light was blocked by the moon. Results from those launches revealed that the drop in sunlight caused perturbations capable of affecting radio and satellite communications, underscoring the need for improved capability to predict them.

"We are super excited to relaunch [the rockets] during the total eclipse, to see if the perturbations start at the same altitude and if their magnitude and scale remain the same," Barjatya concluded in a NASA statement.