On April 8th, 2024, North America experienced its second solar eclipse in seven years and its last total solar eclipse for more than twenty years. The eclipse started in Mexico going northeast through Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana and going all the way till the coast of Canada. 

The last time we had a solar eclipse was back in 2017.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon is in between the Earth and Sun and makes a shadow over Earth.

Another time of eclipse is a A lunar eclipse, it occurs when Earth is between the moon and the sun. When this happens, the moon moves into Earth’s shadow. Earth blocks most of the sunlight from reaching the moon. Reflected sunlight is what makes the moon visible from Earth. 

A total solar eclipse is when the sun is fully covered by the moon. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the earth, with the moon casting its shadow on Earth. 

There are other times of solar eclipses like Annular solar eclipses, they occur when the moon is farther from the Earth. Partial Solar Eclipse is when the Earth, the moon and the sun are imperfectly aligned.

One fun fact is that Moons around other planets can also create eclipses. It’s not the same as ours because they are different sizes but other planes with multiple moons can have more than one eclipse occur at the same time.

This solar eclipse event lasted close to two hours while going on the eclipse path. During totality, the sky got dark like the night and even the temperature dropped, after totality the sun slowly came out.