Eclipse 2024: Does it matter if I go to where the sun is totally blocked?

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The short answer is yes.

In just three weeks, the path of totality for the Great American Eclipse will slice through Central New York.

The total solar eclipse happening on April 8, 2024, is a once-in-a-lifetime event.

You will do yourself a huge favor to travel to an area that experiences totality. You might be asking isn’t close enough to totality good enough? No.

It’s like if you were going to a concert or special event. Would you go 90% of the way there and not see it or would you go the whole way to see the event? That’s a silly question. You’d go the whole way!

It makes a big difference whether you are in an area that sees a total solar eclipse versus one that doesn’t.

What are the benefits of experiencing totality?

1. Sudden nightfall

As the moon blocks the sun, locations experiencing totality, will be plunged into darkness. Stars will become visible and street lights will turn on. The temperature will drop.

2. The sun’s atmosphere becomes visible

Called the corona, this is only visible without sophisticated scientific equipment, during totality. You don’t need anything special to see it — just your eyes. The corona is not visible with even 90% of the sun blocked. Because you should not remove your eclipse glasses or else you risk blindness. You can only remove your eclipse glasses and take in everything if the moon blocks out the sun.

3. Baily’s Beads

As the moon blocks the sun, and just before totality, the last remaining bits of sunlight traveling through the lunar valleys will create a bead-like ring around the sun. You only see that in totality.

4. Sunrise all around

Sounds weird, doesn’t it? You have to remember that the moon’s shadow on the earth is approximately 115 miles wide. When you are in totality, you will see where the sun is out in all directions around you. If you can’t see daylight at the very least you will see the pinkish/orangish hues in the sky of sunset. This will occur as only longer and longer wavelengths of light (red) are filtered through the atmosphere. You will only see this where there is totality. Everywhere else you will still be wearing your eclipse glasses and won’t see it.

How long will totality last?

You have to remember that the sun and moon are spheres. The closer you are to the centerline of the moon’s shadow, the longer totality will be. That’s where you want to be. That’s the yellow-colored line on the map below.

What about your precise location? What are you going to see? And for how long?

Just hover your mouse over the location you are interested in and you will see what you are looking for.