Eclipse Facts

Two solar eclipses will come through the state of New York, specifically the Finger Lakes Region, within a six-month time frame. This is a rare and exceptional circumstance that will consequently make New York a magnet for potentially hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the United States and around the world.

On Saturday, October 14, 2023, an annular solar eclipse will take place beginning over the Pacific Ocean and reaching the United States at Oregon. It will pass through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. For approximately five minutes, those near the middle of the path of this annular solar eclipse will be able to see the Sun as a “ring of fire”. At all times during an annular eclipse, safe eclipse viewing techniques should be practiced.

Following the annular solar eclipse, a total solar eclipse will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024. A total solar eclipse takes place when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, causing a complete block of the face of the Sun. The duration of totality will be approximately four minutes and 27 seconds for certain areas. In the United States, this total solar eclipse will touch 15 states including Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. This will be the last total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States until 2044. Livingston County, New York is within the path of totality for the 2024 solar eclipse. In 2017, the Great American Eclipse was the first total solar eclipse to touch the "Lower 48" since 1979 and the first to span the U.S. from coast to coast since 1918. And now, another total solar eclipse is coming to North America, just seven years after the last one. This time the Moon's dark central shadow, about 115 miles wide, will cross Mexico, sweep northeast from Texas to Maine, and then darken the Canadian Maritimes.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ANNULAR ECLIPSE AND A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE?

An annular solar eclipse takes place when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun when it is at or near its farthest point from the Earth. When at this location, the Moon appears smaller than the Sun and does not completely cover it, resulting in the Moon appearing as a dark disk on top of a larger, bright disk (the Sun). This creates the “ring of fire” around the Moon. During an annular eclipse, it is never safe to look directly at the Sun without specialized eye protection designed for solar viewing. A total solar eclipse takes place when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk, and people located in the center of the Moon’s shadow, or path of totality, will experience a total eclipse. Except during the brief total phase of a total solar eclipse, when the Moon completely blocks the Sun’s bright face, it is not safe to look directly at the Sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing.

WHO CAN SEE THE ECLIPSE?

Depending on weather and cloud cover, everyone in the contiguous United States will see at least a partial solar eclipse.

HOW CAN YOU SEE THE ECLIPSE?

Eclipse viewers should never look directly at the Sun without appropriate eye protection except during totality. There are several ways to safely view an eclipse of the sun including direct viewing, which requires a filtering device, as well as indirect viewing where you project an image of the sun onto a screen. When watching the partial phases of the solar eclipse directly with your eyes, safe solar viewing glasses, or “eclipse glasses” or a handheld solar viewer, must be used at all times. No matter how dark, regular sunglasses are NOT safe for viewing the Sun. Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker and must comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard. Viewing any part of the bright Sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury.

More information at NASA and the Great American Eclipse.