Only 4 days left until the total solar eclipse that will cover all of North America, starting in Mazatlán, Mexico, passing through the US, and ending in Canada. We can’t contain our excitement! In addition to preparing with super effective eclipse rituals that you can check out here, we’ve been researching some curious facts about eclipses that you probably didn’t know.
Here are 10 curious facts about eclipses:
- This will be the first total solar eclipse in the US in 7 years.
- A total solar eclipse occurs when the earth, sun, and moon are aligned. Just imagine how much energy we’ll be able to perceive that day!
- Good news for werewolves! Solar eclipses only happen during a full moon (which means a werewolf would be three times more powerful than usual).
- Solar eclipses do not occur during every full moon. This happens because of orbits, astronomers call them nodes, and eclipses only happen when the sun and moon align at the same node.
- Totalities of eclipses have different durations. This is because the earth is not always in the same place.
- Similar solar and lunar eclipses repeat every 6,585.3 days (18 years, 11 days, 8 hours). Scientists call this period the Saros cycle. Two eclipses separated by a Saros cycle are similar. They occur at the same node, the distance from the Moon to the Earth is almost the same, and they occur at the same time of year.
- Everyone in the US will see at least a partial eclipse. The Moon will cover at least 16 percent of the Sun’s surface, and that’s from Neah Bay at the northwestern tip of Washington.
- It’s all about totality. Only totality reveals the true celestial spectacle: the diamond ring, the Sun’s glorious corona, strange colors in our sky, and seeing stars in the daytime.
- If you want to be the first to see the eclipse, you should go to Texas at 1:27:21 p.m. CDT. There, the total phase lasts 4 minutes and 22 seconds.
- This eclipse will be the most viewed in history with 31 million people watching.
