Here's everything you need to know about this rare and striking astronomical event that you should not miss.
August 21, 2017 will go down as the day when all of North America got to witness the sight of the Moon’s shadow pass directly in front of the Sun – a total solar eclipse.
Today, the deepest part of the shadow, or umbra, cast by the moon will fall over a 70-mile-wide (113-km-wide), 2,500-mile-long (4,000-km-long) ‘path of totality’ traversing 14 states in the US. Millions of people who live there can view the eclipse at its fullest merely by walking outside and simply looking up.
Over the course of 100 minutes, these states across the US will experience more than two minutes of darkness in the middle of the day. Additionally, a partial eclipse will be viewable across all of North America as well.
Spectators and enthusiasts around the world will be flooded with images and videos, captured during the eclipse by 11 spacecraft, at least three NASA aircraft, more than 50 high-altitude balloons, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station – each offering a magnificent point of view for the celestial event.
The eclipse begins its cross-country trajectory over the Pacific Coast of Oregon in late morning. It will reach South Carolina's Atlantic shore some 90 minutes later. The total eclipse of the sun is considered one of the most spell-binding phenomena in nature but it rarely occurs over a wide swath of land, let alone one of the world's most heavily populated countries at the height of summer.
In terms of audience potential, it is hard to top the United States, with its mobile and affluent population, even though the direct path is mostly over rural areas, towns and small cities. The largest is Nashville, Tennessee, a city of 609,000 residents.
Even so, the advent of social media and inexpensive high-tech optics have boosted public awareness, assuring what many US experts predict will be unprecedented viewership for the so-called "Great American Eclipse."
There hasn’t been a total solar eclipse in the contiguous US since 1979. The next total solar eclipse won't happen in the US until April 8, 2024. Outside of the US, the next one will be visible in Chile and Argentina on July 2, 2019.
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