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A total solar eclipse is crossing the US on April 8, 2024, giving more than 30 million people the rare opportunity to watch the moon obscure the sun and darken the skies.
2024-03-28
That's just the people who live in the eclipse's path. Countless others can see it just by driving an hour or two, or taking a short flight.
To see totality — the moment when the moon fully blocks the sun — you need to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
Luckily, NASA made a map to pinpoint just where you should be, and when you should be there.
NASA made this detailed map showing the path of totality for the April 8 total solar eclipse.
How long totality lasts
The lines on the map indicate how long the eclipse will last in different places.NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
White lines on the NASA map, running down the path of totality, indicate how long the eclipse will last along those lines.
Where totality lasts longest
In the best spots, totality will last four minutes.NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
The outermost lines along the path show where the eclipse will last a minute or two. On the innermost lines, it will last four minutes.
What the purple and yellow lines mean
Purple and yellow lines cutting across the map also show where you can see a partial eclipse outside the paths of the moon's full shadow.
Texas is a great place to be for the eclipse
The total solar eclipse will appear in Dallas, Texas, around 1:45 p.m. Central Time.NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Texas hits a home run with this eclipse, which will begin near San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas.
Arkansas and Missouri are next
The eclipse will appear in Little Rock, Arkansas around 1:50 p.m. Central Time.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
Then the eclipse will cast its shadow across the Ozarks in Arkansas and southeastern Missouri.
Totality in the Midwest
The eclipse will appear in Indianapolis just before 3:10 p.m. Eastern Time and then in Cleveland at 3:15 p.m. ET.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
People in the Midwest can flock to southern Illinois, Indianapolis, or Cleveland to get into the path of totality.
Totality across New York
The eclipse will appear in Buffalo, New York, at 3:20 p.m. Eastern Time.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
Much of the northeast can get its eclipse fix by driving to upstate New York. Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Syracuse are all in the path of totality.
Last chance in Maine
The eclipse will move through Maine and exit the US by 3:35 p.m. Eastern Time.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
Everyone's last chance to see a total solar eclipse in the contiguous US for another 20 years will be late afternoon in northern Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
How to watch safely
Children use special glasses to look into the sky during a partial solar eclipse in Madrid, Spain.Getty Images
No matter where you are, don't forget eclipse glasses to protect your eyes from permanent damage.
Eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses. They should comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard.
People watch a partial solar eclipse in Diyarbakir, Turkey.Sertac Kayar/Reuters
Don't look at the sun through a camera, telescope, or binoculars either. They will concentrate the sun's rays and injure your eyes, unless you have secured a special solar filter.
When you can look with the unaided eye
At totality, the moon fully blocks the sun except for the whisps of its outer atmosphere.
Miloslav Druckmüller/NASA
Only at the moment of totality can you safely remove your eclipse glasses. Happy viewing!
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Morgan McFall-Johnsen was a science reporter at Business Insider. She covered climate change, weather, Earth sciences, and space, as well as health and medicine, environmental issues, and occasionally archaeology.Email her at mmcfalljohnsen@gmail.com and follow her on X @MorganMJohnsen.Expertise
Commercial space industry (SpaceX, Blue Origin, satellite constellations)
Astronomy and physics (planets, galaxies, the sun, black holes, gravitational waves)
Morgan has interviewed astronauts aboard the International Space Station and published exclusive in-depth accounts of early COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships.She has appeared on NBC, Scripps News, Sirius XM, C-SPAN, and NPR to discuss climate change, extreme weather, Mars missions, the space race, and far-right extremism. She’s previously written for Backpacker Magazine, Outside Business Journal (formerly SNEWS), and Popular Science.She holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University, where she also studied environmental policy and French. She was a 2022 Logan Science Journalism Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory and a 2023 Columbia Energy Journalism Fellow.Popular stories
