The 2024 Great American Solar Eclipse Is A Really Big Deal: Here’s Why

ACROSS AMERICA — The sun is where the fun is in 2024. With a path of totality that touches 15 U.S. states from Texas to Maine, the April 8 total solar eclipse will be the party of a lifetime for tens of millions of Americans

Something like 31 million U.S. residents have their roots planted in places that will see daytime darkness, with only our yellow star’s spiky corona visible as the moon passes between it and Earth.

And travel projections show, anywhere from 1 million to 4 million people will make a pilgrimage to states in the path of totality — Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

U.S. cities are home to about a third of the people in the path of totality. Some of them are Dallas and Austin in Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Cleveland and Dayton in Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and Burlington, Vermont. Cities just outside the path include San Antonio, Texas; St. Louis; Chicago; Cincinnati; Detroit; and Pittsburgh.

Only about 12 million people lived in the path of totality in the 2017 Great American Eclipse.

This year, people living in areas farther away from the path of totality, including everywhere in the continental U.S., will see a less dramatic blockage of the sun. How much of the sun will be obscured depends on how far they are from the path of totality. The northwest corner of the state of Washington, for example, will see only about 16 percent totality. Click this link for eclipse totality by city.

It will be March 30, 2033, before another total solar eclipse touches the United States, and that’s only on the tip of Alaska. It’ll be Aug. 12, 2044, before the next eclipse sweeps across the lower 48 states, with parts of Montana and North Dakota experiencing totality.

The duration of totality for the April eclipse will be up to 4 minutes and 24 seconds in Eagle Pass, Texas, beginning at 1:27 p.m. Central Daylight Time. In Jackman, Maine, the eclipse reaches totality at about an hour later, at 3:29 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and lasts about 3 minutes and 26 seconds. Partial phases last around an hour and 20 minutes.

Here are seven things to know about the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse:

Before All Else, Protect Your Eyes

Protective eye equipment to a safe level is an absolute must, even in places far outside the path of totality.

Except during the brief total phase of a total solar eclipse, when the moon completely blocks the sun’s bright face and only solar corona visible, it is unsafe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection to block harmful solar radiation, according or NASA.

Amazon has a wide collection of NASA-approved solar eclipse glasses, and the American Astronomical Society has more vendors whose eclipse glasses have been certified as safe. Wherever you acquire protective eyewear, it should meet or exceed the international safety standard of ISO 12312-2:2015.

One other safe way to view the eclipse is with a do-it-yourself pinhole projector that shows the sun on a nearby surface. The American Astronomical Society has pinhole projector DIY instructions.

• Related: 2024 Guide To Meteor Showers, Solar Eclipse, Supermoons And More

Eclipse chasers who plan to photograph the event or view it through binoculars or telescopes need to take precautions, too.

“Viewing any part of the bright Sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury,” NASA said.

Also, solar filters protect the camera’s imaging sensor as well as correct for the exposure, according to camera maker Nikon.

In 2017, eclipse glasses sold out quickly and became as hard to find as toilet paper would become at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. If you’re planning to chase the moon’s shadow, procure your protective eye gear now.

Figure Out Where You’re Staying Now

With 100 percent totality in Dallas and Austin and a good covering in San Antonio, Texas is a prime destination for eclipse chasers. Temperatures are reliably moderate in early April and more favorable to outdoor camping than states farther north, where spring blizzards aren’t out of the question.

“In the U.S., your best bet is definitely Texas — as close as you can get to the border,” Gary Sernik, a consulting editor with Sky & Telescope, told Smithsonian magazine.

The chances for less than ideal skies increase the farther north along the eclipse path, but even if it’s cloudy, the skies will darken.

Smithsonian Journeys is offering an eclipse tours from Austin to the Texas Hill Country costing around $5,000 for single-occupancy accommodations to more than $6,000 for a double room. Guests will have to plunk down a thousand bucks to reserve a spot.

Hotel rooms in prime eclipse cities are becoming increasingly hard to find and more expensive, according to Travel + Leisure. And good luck finding an Airbnb. Its 2024 eclipse travel prediction, Airbnb said searches for accommodations for the week of the eclipse have increased almost 300 percent from the same time period in 2023.

Failing any of those options, consider a friend’s couch or finding a camping spot.

Avoid A Traffic ‘Apocalypse’

Accommodations a couple of towns away from the path of totality may be an option if it’s within a reasonable driving distance and you leave in time to avoid what could be the worst traffic jam in U.S. History

Transportation authorities learned lessons from the coast-to-coast traffic congestion ahead of what was likely the largest special event in U.S. history, and have been planning how to avoid it, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Last time around, about 5 million people left the path of totality at one time. This year there will likely be many times more. With more people in the path of totality this year, the traffic “apocalypse” could be even worse. The report said.

Eclipse tourists may be able to avoid the rush by staying put a few days before setting off for home.

Get Out Your Wallet

Overall, solar eclipse tourism was a huge revenue boost in 2017, bringing in millions of dollars for travel, lodging, food and shopping during the days leading up to the eclipse. Hotel rooms went fast in 2017, a pattern that’s repeating in 2024.

Demand can outpace supply, though.

“Try to be reasonably self-sufficient,” said Michael Zeiler, co-developer of the Great American Eclipse website, told Smithsonian Magazine “Bring your own food, bring your own water and keep the gas tank filled up. Maybe take a sleeping bag just in case.”

Don’t Worry About This Stuff

Legends in ancient cultures attributed the temporary disappearance of the sun to celestial dragons and other mythical creatures, wolves and even giant frogs who either ate the sun or stole it. Among some cultures, the solar eclipse was a foreboding sign the gods were angry or that the siblings the sun and the moon were quarreling, according to timeanddate.com. In many cultures, “eclipse” means to eat.

Among the Pomo, an indigenous group of people who lived in the Northwest United States, the literal translation of “eclipse” is “got bit by a bear.” The legend is that a bear mixed it up with the sun and took a bite out of it and then decided to have a slice of the moon as well, causing a lunar eclipse.

Scientists and astronomers long ago solved the riddle of the solar eclipse — it’s simply what happens when the moon masks the sun as it passes in front of it. Still, some superstitions remain in modern culture, including that solar eclipses are dangerous for pregnant women and their unborn children, or that food cooked during an eclipse is poisonous.

In Italy, though, the superstitions aren’t as gloomy as the sky when the moon blots out the sun. Instead, the eclipse is prime flower planting time; it’s believed they will bloom brighter and more colorful than flowers planted at other times of the year. Other claims about negative effects on human behavior have been debunked by scientists.

It’s Not The Same Eclipse As 2017

One thing that makes the 2024 solar eclipse markedly different from the 2017 event is that it’s occurring as the sun is at its peak activity cycle, called solar maximum. In 2017, the sun was approaching minimum.

“The eclipse that we have coming up in 2024 is going to be a very different eclipse from what we saw in 2017 because this corona that we see is going to have much more structure,” Lisa Upton, a solar scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, told Scientific American.

“The shape of the corona changes dramatically as a function of the solar cycle,” Madhulika Guhathakurta, a solar scientist at NASA, told the publication. This time around, scientists expect that the corona will appear larger and have more outflows and spikelike structures than in an eclipse during quieter solar conditions.”

The 2024 eclipse is a unique opportunity for scientists to continue studying the sun and learn more about the violent solar storms occurring right now. They are responsible for auroras that dance far outside their Arctic and Antarctic ranges, but also carry the potential to knock out internet satellites for months, take down power grids, and interfere with navigation satellites Right now, these events happen with little warning, but scientists are working on their “ability to predict space weather.”

Let’s Get This Party Rolling

Americans turned the 2017 eclipse into a coast-to-coast sun party. The last time an eclipse of that magnitude touched the continental U.S. was in 1918, and Americans’ celebrations were as impressive as the eclipse itself.

Parties took place on lawns across the country. We had silliness in spades, in the best possible ways. There were solar eclipse marriages. Aboard a cruise, Bonnie Tyler sang her 1970s hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on a cruise ship the exact moment the moon covers the sun.

It was a difficult time in America, with divisions that persist today. But for one day, all it took to bring Americans together with smiles and charity was the moon-darkened sun that moved silently across the country, each area it crossed joining the previous like strands in a peaceful, easy harmony. America found her shine bathed in darkness.

The cities in the path of totality have various plans in place to make 2024 equally memorable. Sometimes, the magic just happens naturally, Trish Erfled, the chair of the Missouri Eclipse Task Force, told Smithsonian Magazine.

When daytime turns to darkness, “We’re encouraging people to listen to the cows, the horses, the birds, the crickets. Horses will head for the barn when the light starts dimming,” she said. “Even if you’re clouded out, even if it rains, you’re still going to have a really unique experience.”