The total phase of the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse as seen from Casper, Wyo. Photo via NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Keon Gibson

Astronomy

Alum Has Traveled the World to Witness Total Solar Eclipses

Noreen Grice, among those known as “eclipse chasers,” describes the mystique and offers tips for watching

It’s almost here. On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be visible from the United States. Millions of people will be flocking to Dallas, Tex., Little Rock, Ark., Indianapolis, Ind., Cleveland, Ohio, and Rochester, N.Y., among other major cities that lie along the path of totality.

People who travel to see total solar eclipses are fondly known as “eclipse chasers.” Why would someone do this? It’s the mystique of the total solar eclipse—when the sky darkens, and the moon blocks the sun, revealing the sun’s glowing outer atmosphere, the corona. The experience might last less than a minute or for several minutes. 

How do I know this? Because I have been one of those people.

My first trip to see a total eclipse was in July 1991. I was asked to lead a tour group from Boston’s Museum of Science to observe the total solar eclipse from Hawaii. On eclipse morning, we set up our telescopes on the edge of a golf course on the Big Island of Hawaii. I remember that the sky was cloudy at sunrise, but we were optimistic because weather reports showed clear days on July 11 for the previous 10 years.

We observed the partial phases when the moon began to slowly cover the sun. As the time of totality neared, I turned to watch the view from the east. Suddenly, a dark shadow appeared from the distance and raced toward us. It was amazing! As I turned back to look at the sun, I noticed that a cloud had slid in the way. We were surrounded by a glow of sunset in all directions, but we could not see the sun. Totality was concealed behind a cloud. We were outsmarted by the weather.

Four years later, I would try again.

In October 1995, I led another group to witness the total solar eclipse from the Shekhawati region of India, near the city of Jaipur. On the morning of October 24, 1995, the sky was clear, and we were ready. We watched the partial phases progress and noticed that birds, thinking that evening was approaching, returned to their nests. Then, it happened: totality. The bright glow of the corona surrounded the sun in a spectacle that is almost beyond words. It lasted for about a minute and seemed surreal.

Total solar eclipses happen because Earth travels about the sun while the moon travels about Earth. Every month, the moon’s path takes it between the Earth and sun in a lunar phase called New Moon. But the moon does not always align perfectly between the sun and Earth, or we would have an eclipse every month. Sometimes, the New Moon appears a little above and sometimes it is a little below our line of sight with the sun. This happens because the moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted slightly. 

But when the sun and moon do align perfectly, we can have a total solar eclipse. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but it is also 400 times closer to us than the sun, so they both appear the same size in the sky. This is how the moon can cover the sun’s disk during a total solar eclipse.

Three years after India, I led a trip to observe the total solar eclipse from Aruba. We watched the eclipse from the beach right outside the hotel. The sky was clear and the color of dusk. Lights from nearby boats flickered on, and suddenly we heard a distant roar of cheers get louder. The shadow was approaching. As we looked up, the moon slid into position and the last rays from the sun beamed through deep valleys on the moon to create the diamond ring effect. Moments later, we saw totality.

This experience of hearing cheers before totality in Aruba was similar to an experience that astronomer Maria Mitchell wrote about in 1869, when she observed a total solar eclipse. She described the scene just before totality: “The neighboring cattle began to low; the birds uttered a painful cry; fireflies winked in the foliage, and when the last ray of light was extinguished, a wave of sound came up from the villages below, the mingling of the subdued voices of the multitude. Instantly the corona burst forth, a glory indeed: It encircled the sun with a soft light, and it sent off streamers for millions of miles into space!”

In 1999, I saw a total solar eclipse from the deck of a cruise ship on the Black Sea. In 2017, I joined an eclipse trip with the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, and we observed totality from Carbondale, Ill.

I think everyone has a different feeling when viewing a total solar eclipse. For me, during the time of totality, I’m looking at the active sun and thinking about this shared experience of humanity—the moment you see the sun covered by the moon, and you’re watching with others, you are sharing a surreal experience. And I always wonder what ancient people must have thought at such moments, like, “Wow!” or “Let’s get out of here!”

Noreen Grice’s Tips for Eclipse Watchers

It’s important to note that you can only see totality if you are within the path of totality in the darkest shadow. If you are in the surrounding lighter shadow, you will see a partial solar eclipse. (The map of the 2024 eclipse shows a dark curve starting from Texas, going through the midwest and curving to northern New England and ending in Canada. To see totality, you must be watching within that dark shadow. If you are not—the rest of the continental United States is not—then you are in a lighter shadow and will see a partial solar eclipse, where the moon doesn’t completely cover the sun. So, in Connecticut and Massachusetts, we are in the lighter shadow and will see a partially covered sun—that’s the partial eclipse.) 

Within the continental United States, people will see about two hours of a partial solar eclipse. If you are in an area where the moon covers 100 percent of the sun, and the weather cooperates, you will see totality.

Never look directly at the sun, even with sunglasses. You must observe the partial phases with safe eclipse glasses, through a telescope with an approved solar filter, or with a simple pinhole projector with a box. The American Astronomical Society has a website on safe eclipse glasses and filters.

NASA offers instructions on how to make a simple pinhole projector box.

The April 8 eclipse will totally block the sun in parts of 13 states:
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Here’s where you can see it in person.

You can watch NASA’s live broadcast of the total solar eclipse.

Between two and five solar eclipses happen each year around the world. The last total solar eclipse in the United States was in August 2017. The next one in the United States will be August 2044. Happy eclipse viewing!

Noreen Grice (CAS’85) is president of the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society and of the company You Can Do Astronomy LLC.