Mark your calendars for April 8, 2024. It’s the date for the next total eclipse of the sun.
Observing the eclipse
offers an educational experience that combines science, technology, engineering
and math – all four STEM components. Advance planning is essential.
A lot of the preliminary work has already been done, however, by Michael Bakich of Astronomy magazine, a bona fide “eclipse-ologist.”
He is ultra-excited about
the April 8, 2024, eclipse, because its “totality” at the center line of the
path will last more than a minute longer than the Great American Eclipse of
Aug. 21, 2017.
Bakich said he wants to start building the buzz early, so more Americans can “experience the awesome wonder of a total solar eclipse” on April 8, 2024.
No two eclipses are ever the same. “The length of totality varies,” he said, because “Earth is not always the same distance from the sun, and the moon is not always the same distance from Earth. The Earth-sun distance varies by 3% and the Earth-moon distance varies by 12%.”
As it works out, Bakich
reports the April 8, 2024, eclipse will have a maximum totality of 4 minutes,
28 seconds.
“Only totality reveals the true celestial spectacles…the sun’s glorious corona and 360 degrees of sunset colors,” he said.
Bakich said the 2024 eclipse center line will run diagonally, from the southwest to northeast, on a line through 14 states: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
“Those wishing to observe
the 2024 eclipse from the same location that the center line crossed during the
2017 eclipse should head to the Village of Makanda, Ill., just south of
Carbondale,” he said.
Makanda got its start in 1845 as a construction camp for workers who were building the Illinois Central Railroad.
The 536 people who live in Makanda today are already in countdown mode. Makanda’s 2017 blackout lasted 2 minutes, 40 seconds. The 2024 eclipse will be a whopper – lasting 4 minutes, 8 seconds.
Makanda is a trendy arts
community. Nina Kovar of Visions Art Gallery says: “This place has always been
a funky elbow in the road.”
In 2017, the center line
for the eclipse ran smack-dab down the middle of the business and entertainment
district. NASA determined that the eclipse center line ran through the
Rainmaker Art Studio and its Secret Garden out back.
An immediate challenge for the 2024 eclipse, however, is the center line crosses Cedar Lake in Makanda, a 1,750-acre reservoir.
Cedar Lake is within the
Shawnee National Forest and welcomes small boats, kayaks and canoes. That’s
perfect for the formation of a flotilla. For spectators, it will be a
once-in-a-lifetime experience looking skyward through their protective goggles while
on the water.
Ready to make your solar eclipse 2024 plans to be in Makunda? Not so fast, warns Michael Bakich. Consider all your options first, he advises…including the weather.
“The weather in Illinois in April 2024 will be a lot different from what it was for the August 2017 eclipse event,” he said. Typically, the early April forecast is for partly to mostly cloudy skies.
“Therefore, your chances of actually seeing the 2024 eclipse increase dramatically as you head to the American Southwest,” Bakich said.
One possibility is Russellville, Ark., which is hosting a three-day “Total Eclipse of the Heart Festival,” April 6-8. Couples who happen to be in love “to the moon and back” can tie the knot during the totality, which will last 4 minutes, 18 seconds.
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