A year from today, you may be able to see a rare celestial event. Check it out on August 21, 2017. A total solar eclipse can be watched across the continental US. Called the Great American Eclipse, it will traverse the "path of totality" from Oregon to South Carolina, astronomers say.
Every year, there are two solar and two lunar eclipses. As the earth and the moon do not orbit in the same plane, you would not see what can be expected if they did orbit in the same plane---a lunar eclipse during every full moon, and a solar eclipse for every new moon.
Actually, the moon orbits only 5 degrees off-kilter from the ecliptic orbit, and both intersect just twice every month at points called nodes, which line up with the new moon or full moon. Hence, you can see just four partial eclipses every year.
On the other hand, total eclipses occur just once every 18 months, with the complete effect seen just along a 70-mile wide "path of totality." However, it may not be accessible to populated areas.
"People that have seen total eclipses tell you it's nothing like a partial. It's almost a life changing experience to see it," said Wellington, who serves as president of the Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society. "It's something so wrong. When there are audio recordings of people reacting to it a lot of times they have to bleep half of it out because you don't say 'Oh my gosh' when the sun goes out. It hits your brain in a different way. It's not supposed to happen."
The last it was visible in the US was on February 26, 1979, when everyone made a beeline to Pacific Northwest.
Next year's event has brought a huge load of "eclipse tourism", the first one since 1776. Areas within its "path of totality," ie Oregon to South Carolina, can see the complete effect of the eclipse.
"If you are in that path of totality, you are seeing the main event, but if you are off to the side - even where the sun is 99 percent covered by the moon - it is like going up to the ticket booth of a baseball or football stadium but not going inside," Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College, told Space.com.
Following 2017, you can see the next Great American Eclipse only in April 2024. You might be able to see part of the 2017 eclipse too, though.
So what do you need to do before touring out for the eclipse? Protect your eyes with some eyewear. Even a shoebox eclipse viewer would do.
