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When the moon ’s key shadow races at more than 1,500 mph ( 2,400 kilometer / h ) across North America onApril 8 to get a entire solar eclipse , the resulting spectacle will be both unique and part of a progressing cycle .
Thispath of totality(the way of life of the moonlight ’s dark shadow across the face of the Earth ) will be minute , at just 115 miles ( 185 kilometers ) astray , and it will cross parts of Mexico , the U.S. and Canada in a never - to - be - repeated itinerary across the continent , lasting just100 minutes . Only from within that way will viewers experience darkness during the daytime , throw temperatures andnocturnal animal behavior — and only from within that course will it be possible to look at the entirely eclipsed Sunday ’s beautiful aureole with the au naturel eye . ( Note : DO NOT look like a shot at the sun at any prison term other than totality without wearing a couplet ofcertified solar occultation glasses . )
April 8’s total solar eclipse is inextricably linked to one in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada on March 7, 1970, seen here..
For most of the 40 million people live on in the course of totality , it will be a once - in - a - lifetime event , but solar eclipses are the merchandise of a long - condition pattern that reprize on far gravid timescales than human life .
Related : April 8 total solar eclipse : The best places to stargaze near the path of totality
All solar eclipse come in family call Saros . Every 223 lunations — orb ofthe moonaround Earth — a near - identical moon shadow is send off onto Earth ’s surface to do an eclipse . That work on out to 6,585.3 daylight , or 18 old age , 11 day , 8 hr , grant toNASA .
Saros 139 is a family of eclipses that currently repeats every 54 years in North America.
That eight hour is critical . It mean that three solar eclipses following each other in the same Saros occur a third of the way around the orb . The totalsolar eclipseon April 8 is part ofSaros 139 , which was creditworthy for a total solar occultation across Africa 18 twelvemonth , 11 days , 8 hours earlier , onMarch 29 , 2006 . Precisely 18 years , 11 Day , 8 hour after April 8 , 2024 — on April 20 , 2042 — the same Saros will produce a total solar occultation in Asia .
Those eight hours , however , guarantee that a similar way of total will revisit the same part of the globe every fourth repeat . This period of precisely 669 lunations — or 54 years , 33 days — is called the exeligmos .
So the same ethereal mechanic that will cause the total solar eclipse on April 8 produce a total solar occultation in North America onMarch 7 , 1970 . That path of totality occurred slightly to the east , throwing Mexico , the U.S. ( Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina and Massachusetts ) and Canada ( Nova Scotia and Newfoundland ) under the Sun Myung Moon ’s shadow . After April 8 , it will next inflict North America again onMay 11 , 2078 , when Mexico and the U.S. ( Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama , Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina and Virginia ) will experience totality .
— April 8 solar eclipse : What will take place during totality ?
— Where to buy your solar occultation glass before the April 8 total eclipse
— April 8 solar eclipse : What is the way of life of entirety , and where ’s the best spot to watch ?
But Saros do not last forever ; across the hundred , they get up and strike across Earth ’s surface , eventually skipping off into space . Saros 139 has been producing solar eclipses since 1501 and will do so until 2763 , but it will top out onJuly 16 , 2186 , when it will produce a integrality lasting 7 minutes , 29 second — the long total eclipsein 10,000 year , and until at least the year 6000 .
