Two major solar eclipses will soon happen. Each will be seen from here to some degree. You certainly want to experience a true spectacle. But will both of these — on October 14, 2023 and April 8, 2024 — really deliver?
One definitely will. The other? Well, pull up a chair.
Those who were in the path of the last US total solar eclipse, on August 21, 2017, know the marvels that arrive with a solar totality. The experience tops the list of Nature’s most awesome spectacles. Indeed, the true standouts of celestial grandeur weave their magical tapestry with just the naked eye. Number four: A major naked-eye comet, which appears only once every 15-20 years. Number three: A rich meteor shower with numerous fireballs, which last materialized as the Leonids in November, 2001. Number two: A bright, motion-filled display of the Northern Lights. Number one: A total eclipse of the Sun.
The eclipse tops them all. Watching deep pink geysers of nuclear fire shoot from the Sun’s edge, you feel Nature’s absolute climax has been attained.
That’s what will happen on April 8, 2024 along a 100-mile-wide path that crosses northward out of Mexico to traverse Texas and other states before curving eastward to pass over Buffalo, Plattsburgh, NY, and Burlington, VT.
So that’s the first task: to place yourself within that path (See a map of totality online). Biggest mistake? It’s deciding to observe from your backyard because you read that the Sun will get 95% eclipsed from right here in the mid-Hudson Valley. You might decide that that’s good enough. After all, 95% may seem close enough to 100% to constitute a negligible difference, not enough to justify traveling. Right?
Wrong! A partial eclipse, even if the Sun is 99% blocked, misses the event’s heart and soul because the most amazing stuff happens only at totality. This includes the corona, the Sun’s atmosphere, which forms delicate magnetic lines that leap across the sky. And prominences — those astounding pink tongues of flame — as they fly up from the Sun’s edge! Animals act up. People weep. It’s like nothing else.
If you stay here and merely see a partial eclipse, none of those things appear. In fact nothing appears, because you then can’t look at the Sun at all without damaging your eyes. Instead, you’re looking through black eclipse glasses, seeing the Sun partially blocked out so that it looks like a crescent Moon. This goes on for a full hour and is the only thing that occurs from here or from most of the U.S. that afternoon.
So that’s April 8. Our tour group (Specialinteresttours.com) has reserved an entire Texas winery ranch for ourselves, since the odds of clear weather are a bit better down there. From this region, you’d see the total eclipse from Plattsburgh or Burlington. That’s where to be that day.
Now let’s turn to the October 14 “Ring of Fire” eclipse coming up just a month from now. It’s got the advantage of hype with that wonderful evocative nickname that matches the iconic Johnny Cash breakout hit. It, too, has a path that crosses much of the U.S. But this time, it’s a partial eclipse no matter where you go. For this event you need to look through a filter the whole time. No totality ever happens. No prominences, no corona, no animals going crazy, no darkness at noon. For the entire country it’s a partial eclipse. This one’s different only because, if you’re inside that path from Oregon to Texas, the Sun will be partially blocked to appear as a bright ring.
It’s called an annular eclipse because “annulus” means “ring.” From here it’ll be a skimpy partial eclipse that day at 1 p.m., with the Sun just 20% blocked.
Our takeaway is simple. Sure, have a look at the partial eclipse on October 14, but be sure to obtain eclipse glasses ahead of time, or a welders’ glass filter shade 12, 13, or 14.
As for the April 8 total solar eclipse: Miss this, and your next chance to catch a solar totality within 500 miles of here won’t happen until May 1, 2079. That one will actually be total right here!
So either keep eating vegetables and work out at the gym and catch that one. Or else place yourself in the path of totality next April 8, and you’ll witness the most amazing thing your eyes have ever seen.
Join the family! 
