On Monday, April 8, much of North and Central America will have the opportunity to see the Moon pass in front of and cover the Sun during a total solar eclipse.
The total eclipse will be visible to millions of people in parts of North America, Mexico and Canada. It will start from the South Pacific Ocean, with the first areas of Mexico observing it from the Pacific coast. The path of the eclipse will cross Mexico and continue into the US through Texas, continuing northeast and then into Canada.
During totality, when the Moon’s black disk takes the place of the Sun, the sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk, and viewers will have the opportunity to observe the Sun’s corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere. This phase can last up to four minutes. Outside the path of totality, people in neighboring areas will have a chance to see a partial solar eclipse.
According to NASA, approximately 31.5 million people live along the path of the eclipse, while a total of over 300 million people will have the opportunity to experience even a partial eclipse. NASA has scheduled live coverage of the eclipse from 8 p.m. Greek time and for three hours from locations throughout the US. Live coverage will be provided by its website with commentary and its telescope-only YouTube page.
Groups of professional and amateur astronomers, astrophotographers and eclipse hunters from all over Greece are preparing to travel, some to the USA and others to Mexico, to observe and study the impressive astronomical phenomenon.
Among them is the astrophysicist at the Visitor Center of the National Observatory of Athens, in Thisio, Fiori-Anastasia Metallenou, who will travel to Durango, Mexico together with members of the Astronomical Union of Sparta “Dioskouri”. There the eclipse will have a total duration of two hours and 41 minutes and totality three minutes and 47 seconds.
As Ms. Metallenou explains to APE-MPE, in 2024 the Sun is at its maximum solar activity, so all solar phenomena appear more intense. “So on this particular eclipse, weather permitting, we hope and expect to see more intense solar phenomena, such as solar flares and protrusions. Even the Sun’s corona will be more intense in the observations and measurements that will be made and in the photographs that will be taken.”
She highlights another interesting aspect of this particular total eclipse: that it takes place 18 years after the 2006 total eclipse that was visible from Kastellorizo. “These 18 years are a periodicity, called the Saros cycle and it was known to the Babylonians and the ancient Greeks, who could thus predict eclipses. In this cycle, identical eclipses are repeated, so on April 8th we will see an eclipse identical to the eclipse in Kastellorizo.”
It is noted that the next total solar eclipse is expected on August 12, 2024 and will be visible from Iceland, Portugal, Russia and Spain.
SOURCE: APE-ME