Don’t Miss Out! Get Ready for Upcoming Solar Eclipses with the New NASA Map

NASA made a map that can show us where to watch the solar eclipses in the United States for 2023 and 2024. The map shows us the path of the Moon’s shadow crossing the US from coast-to-coast during two different events – an annular solar eclipse on October 14, 2023, and a total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024.

Curious watchers will have the perfect chance to see a spectacular “ring of fire” during an annular eclipse when the Moon covers the Sun, and they will also get a glimpse at the Sun’s ghostly-white outer atmosphere (called the corona) when the Moon completely blocks out its disk during a total eclipse. An observer should make sure that they are standing in certain “dark paths” across the continent for these awesome sights!

The map also shows parts of the U.S., Mexico and Canada where the Sun will be partly blocked out by the Moon during the two eclipses. All 48 states in the U.S. will experience at least a little bit of a solar eclipse on both dates!

Catch the Total Solar Eclipse Experience

NASA recently released a map which shows two paths across the United States. One path is for an annular eclipse, and it stretches from Oregon to Texas. Everyone in that path has a chance to see the eclipse – if it’s not cloudy! The other path is for a total eclipse and extends from Texas to Maine. Anyone living in this area can catch the total eclipse too – providing the skies are clear!

You can find two types of shapes inside the dark paths on the map. Yellow ovals show when people will be able to see an annular eclipse, and purple ovals show when people will be able to witness a total eclipse. If you’re standing inside either one of those oval shapes at the particular time shown in it, then you’ll get to experience that kind of eclipse!

If you are close to the center of an annular eclipse or total eclipse, it will last longer than if you were further away from the middle. On a map, in the areas where some form of an eclipse will be visible, there are lines that show how long it will last for. For spots near Nevada-Utah in the North and San Antonio-Corpus Christi, Texas in the South that experience an annular eclipse, this time can range from 3 to 4.5 minutes. If you go to Presque Isle, Maine in the North or locations between 2:20 and 2:25 p.m. CST ovals in Mexico in the South during a total eclipse it could last even longer!

People living in areas outside the paths of the solar or annular eclipse will still see a partial eclipse. On the map, yellow lines show how much of the Sun is blocked during an annular eclipse and purple lines show how much of the Sun is blocked during a total eclipse. The percentage labels for this can be seen along the left and top edges for an annular eclipse, and on the bottom and right edges for a total eclipse. (Note: These percentages match up with the lines).

The two eclipses won’t just be visible in the United States – they’ll reach some other countries too. According to the map on NASA’s website, in April 2024 a total eclipse will cross Mexico and northeastern Canada, while an annular eclipse will reach all the way to Mexico, Central America and South America in October 2023. Even places like southeastern Alaska and Hawaii will get a glimpse of one of them – but it will only be partial.

Mapping the Moon’s Shadow with NASA Technology

Michala Garrison created a map. She is part of NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS). She used her knowledge in geography and cartography to create the map. She got information from different parts of NASA to make the map come together.

NASA collected data from three sources—the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility—to figure out how tall mountains are on Earth and the shape of the Moon. Ernie Wright used this information to decide where and what size the Moon’s shadow would be.

NASA used images from its special satellites to create the Blue Marble – a picture of Earth that showed all the colors of the land. To make his 2024 total eclipse project even more cool, Garrison thought he’d use nighttime pictures from NASA’s Black Marble. These pictures show city lights shining on the dark side of the planet and were taken by the Suomi NPP satellite.

Garrison wanted people to go watch a special event that happened last time when the moon’s shadow crossed America. She wants to help inspire people and get them ready for it this time.

Two special events will happen in the sky in 2023 and 2024. On October 14, 2023 there will be an annular solar eclipse from Oregon to Texas where the Sun will look like a bright ring of fire. On April 8, 2024 you’ll see a total solar eclipse from Texas to Maine and everyone in between these two places in the United States can experience a partial solar eclipse. There is a map produced by NASA sources that maps out both paths on one image for you to understand better what everyone can expect to observe during each eclipse. The video offers more details about each eclipse so make sure to watch it!

In 2017, I was in Maryland and I saw some of an eclipse, even though I didn’t know much about it back then. But now, I am interested in possibly travelling to Albuquerque in 2023 and further south in 2024 so that I can experience a full eclipse.

Garrison made changes to the map so that people both inside and outside the paths would know how to get the best experience from seeing an eclipse.

“I had to try a lot of things before finding a good solution. I wanted it to be useful, but not too complicated – and still look cool so people will pay attention to it.”