April's total solar eclipse counts down. Watch parties and safe viewing

North America gets another solar eclipse.The peak spectacle on April 8 will last 4 minutes, 28 seconds in total darkness, double the 2017 U.S. solar eclipse.

The eclipse will pass Mexico's Pacific coast, Texas, Oklahoma, the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, New England, and eastern Canada into the Atlantic.

44 million people, including 32 million Americans, reside within the 115-mile (185-kilometer) path of totality from Mazatlán, Mexico to Newfoundland, driving traffic for the must-see celestial event.

Moon will precisely align with Earth and sun, blocking sunlight. Moon shadows will diagonally darken North American colonies southwest to northeast in two hours.

Though Tennessee and Michigan will hardly participate, 15 states will.Most eclipse spectators were in Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Montreal.

No front row? No issue. Most of the continent can see partial eclipses. Moon sun bite decreases with distance from totality. The outermost U.S. cities, Seattle and Portland, absorb one-third of the sun.

Close moonlight extends sun-blocked darkness.The moon and Earth will average 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun that day.

A closer moon and distant sun extend totality to 7 1/2 minutes. African totality last exceeded seven minutes in 1973. Nothing like that will happen over the Pacific until 2150.

Full solar eclipses occur every two or three years in distant areas like the South Pacific or Antarctic. Iceland, Spain, and northern Greenland will see the 2026 complete solar eclipse.

Alaska is the only North American totality site in 2033. Only Western Canada, Montana, and North Dakota will see totality until 2044.No more US coast-to-coast eclipses until 2045. Cape Canaveral to North California.

NASA's Korreck claimed totality returns after 400–1,000 years, unlike Carbondale, Illinois, where the 2017 and 2024 eclipses occurred.

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