Monday’s solar eclipse will be the first total eclipse since 2017, according to NASA’s website (nasa.gov). Before 2017, the previous eclipse was in 1979. Those who miss Monday’s will not get another chance to see one until August, 2044.
An eclipse happens when at just the right moment, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth. In 2017 the eclipse passed through Oregon to South Carolina. The moon in the total eclipse of 2017 was farther away than the moon will be on Monday.
The total eclipse on Monday will start in Mexico, travel to Texas, then to Maine, and it will exit in Newfoundland, Canada. In Pennsylvania the eclipse will start at 2 p.m. and look like a shadow moving toward the sun.
At 3 p.m. the moon will cover most of the sun, and the light will grow dimmer. From 3:20 – 4:30 p.m., the phases of the eclipse will happen backward, ending at 4:30 p.m.
There are five different kinds of eclipses: A total eclipse, which is when the sun, moon and Earth are aligned, and the moon seems to cover the sun completely, unlike a partial eclipse, which is when the sun, moon and earth are not perfectly lined up.
An annular eclipse is when the moon, at its farthest point, passes between the sun and the earth, and a Lunar eclipse is when this happens at the full moon stage. A hybrid eclipse can occur because the Earth’s surface is curved. The eclipse can sometime shift between a total eclipse, as the moon’s shadow moves across the earth.
