ABOVE: The path of totality can be seen by the wide grey strip
BELOW: The Moon completely obscures the Sun’s disc at
totality, bringing our star’s corona into stark contrastmountains and finally zipping across the
Carolinas and out over the Atlantic, near the
historic city of Charleston.
Note that simply being within the path of
totality isn’t enough: you want to be near the
middle of the path, known as the centre line.
Most locations near the centre line experience
about two and a half minutes of totality. People
living just south of Carbondale, Illinois, can brag
that they got the longest duration of totality, with
a little over two minutes and 40 seconds. That
duration drops sharply as you move away from
the centre line. Meanwhile, anyone viewing from
north or south of the path of totality experienced
a partial eclipse – far less dramatic than totality.
As the moment of totality approaches, the
entire landscape can appear altered. In the half
“You see, hear and feel
a total solar eclipse.
Experience one and
you’ll be hooked”
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