Nothing eclipses an eclipse

April 8, 2021

Three years from today, it's happening again.

The afternoon of Monday, August 21, 2017, my daughter Ella and I stood next to a quiet railroad track south of St. Louis, in Kimmswick, MO. In 93-degree heat, we watched the Great American Total Solar Eclipse: The moon edged over the sun until it covered it completely: For a minute and a half, our world was in shadows, the air was cool, crickets chirped, the stars came out, and the horizon in all directions glowed sunset colors. The eclipse had started in the Pacific Northwest and sloped gently southeast across the country, ending off the coast of South Carolina. Ella and I were alone, but together in spirit with the millions of others who had traveled to the path of totality.

You might wonder: What's the big deal? A total solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon is perfectly positioned for a few minutes between the Earth and the sun so as to cast a shadow on the Earth, isn't rare: It happens somewhere in the world once every 18 months. I, too, was an eclipse skeptic back then. But those few precious minutes of twilight rocked my world forever (I wrote about it in my 8/24/17 column, 99% is not Totality). The rest of the continent experienced it as a partial eclipse, and that, too, was pretty cool: Throughout North America, communities bonded over the shared wonder of our universe.

THREE YEARS FROM TODAY, we'll have another chance to experience a total solar eclipse in the U.S. and Canada, on Monday, April 8, 2024. This eclipse has a different path than the one in 2017: It will start in Mexico, then will travel up through Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, eastern Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio... then it will skirt southern Ontario as it passes through western New York and then heads to the northern part of Vermont and New Hampshire, southern Quebec, and then out to the Atlantic through Newfoundland. If you take the opportunity to stand in the path of totality, I promise you won't regret it.

Even better, the 2024 eclipse will be happening 8 days after Easter, which means many families will have the interim week off for vacation. If nothing else, the past year has boosted our confidence in our creativity, and communities in the path of totality are already planning events that will make your family's experience unforgettable. Expect amazing festivals, music, theater, exhibits, and cleverly-named food and drink options. Your kids won't even know they're learning as you make memories that will last their whole lives.

Where will you be on April 8, 2024? Start planning now.

—Deb