The best places to see the 2024 total solar eclipse

04.01.2024 - 18:41 / nationalgeographic.com / Nova Scotia

It was 2:38 p.m. on August 21, 2017, when day turned to night. That was the precise moment in Greenville, South Carolina, when the moon, passing between the sun and Earth, fully blocked our view of the sun.

Birds squawked in weird intonations, a few stars dotted a purplish sky, and the temperature felt like it dropped several degrees. I took my protective glasses off—something you can only do during totality—and was awestruck to see the sun’s corona flaring around the moon. Feeling euphoric, I finally understood why so-called eclipse chasers travel the world in pursuit of them.

When I learned the next solar eclipse in North America would be on April 8, 2024, I knew I would have to see it. Here’s what I learned about where and how best to experience this celestial wonder, which won’t occur again in the continental U.S. until 2044.

The April 8, 2024, eclipse will in some ways be better than the 2017 one. “It’s a long one, with over four minutes of totality. Because of the length of duration, it’s going to get much darker than in 2017 during totality,” says Bob Baer, a specialist at the School of Physics and Applied Physics at Southern Illinois University and co-chairperson of Southern Illinois Eclipse 2017-2024 Steering Committee. “The sun is very active now and will likely produce a corona larger than we saw in 2017, when we were in a period of low solar activity.”

As the moon blocks the sun’s light, it casts a shadow, creating a trail as Earth rotates. This shadow trail is called the path of totality. In the hours before and after the total eclipse, a partial eclipse is viewable, with the moon partially obscuring the sun. You must wear protective eclipse glasses when viewing a partial eclipse. Any locations outside the narrow path of totality will only see a partial eclipse.

On April 8, the total solar eclipse will occur across a band of North America, including parts of Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The path of totality, which looks like a narrow arc on a map of North America, will enter the U.S. in Texas at 1:27 p.m. Central Daylight Time, going through parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The eclipse then arrives in Canada via southern Ontario and continues through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. The eclipse exits continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. Newfoundland Daylight Time.

“Make sure you pick a spot directly in the path of totality,” says Ryan French, solar physicist at the National Science Foundation’s National Solar Observatory and author of The Sun: Beginner’s Guide to Our Local Star. “In general, the closer