It has begun: A galactic show akin to flipping off the daytime light switch at an odd time of the day.
In what astronomers often deem an epic “coincidence,” the moon has begun its rare movement across the sun, aligning for just over two hours directly in Earth’s “path of totality.”
Folks, this won’t happen again in North America until LeBron James is pushing 60 years old (he’ll likely still be playing ball). And if all goes well, we will have sent our first people to Mars.
The Great American Solar eclipse across North America is happening — now.
That’s why the birds are beginning to chirp. The animals are acting a little funky (often in part because we are). People are putting on their special glasses, or looking through homemade pinhole cameras as things go dark across much of the U.S., and darker in Southern California, where we are seeing a partial eclipse.
Solar Eclipse 2024: What Southern California should know as things go dark(er)
While the show began at 10:06 a.m., you’ve got time to make it to the “theater,” – a theater anywhere where you can see the sky.
The “path of totality,” the band where the sun is completely blocked from view, will cut diagonally across the continent, delighting U.S. viewers from Texas to Maine. All told, the totality will pass over 13 U.S. states, and at least a partial eclipse will be visible from all 50, within eyeshot of 99% of the U.S. population.
The Great American Solar Eclipse has begun. April 8, 2024. (Courtesy, NASA)
Here in Southern California, we will see a a sun nearly 50% covered by the moon.
The eclipse will peak at 11:12 a.m. and conclude at 12:22 p.m., at which point the moon and the sun will take a bow and go back to being their normal selves.
It is estimated that 31.6 million people in the U.S. live in the totality’s path, and many others will travel for the chance to see day become night for four and a half minutes.
While the path is only partial here in So Cal, we have the blessings of a clear and balmy day, clear skies and all.
And stargazers are just as giddy about the half coverage. They are gathering all over Southern California, from the I.E. to O.C. and from Caltech to the Griffith Observatory. Local schools and universities, libraries are holding watch parties, where the event is an excuse to take a couple of hours off, and learn about something we rarely have a chance to look up at: the sun.
By the way, don’t look at the sun without special eclipse glasses.
“You don’t look at the sun every day,” said Joel Zinn, assistant professor at Cal State Long Beach’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, where there’s a watch party going on right now on the campus’s upper quad. “This is the one time when people think about the sun in a different way.”
Zinn said this is a particularly good chance to see solar flares and prominences on the sun’s surface. (Again, where the special glasses).
Usually, the sun is a bit player in our day – behind the scenes, so to speak, shining the light, but never with the “light” shined on it. Today is different, Zinn said.
Today, the sun is the star of the show, he said.
Total solar eclipse on April 8
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This is a developing story. Stay tuned for updates.
