Photo By James Watt
A total solar eclipse recently shrouded the United States of America and parts of Mexico in darkness. The solar eclipse made the sky dark and lasted 1 minute and 54 seconds.
A solar eclipse is a natural event when the moon aligns between the Earth and the sun, obscuring and illuminating it. On April 8th, a super rare event occurred: unlike an ordinary eclipse, the moon completely covered the sun's disk.
Usually, a typical eclipse happens on Earth every 18 months; a total eclipse happens every 3–5 years. The next total solar eclipse is predicted to be on August 12th, 2026. The main reason why a solar eclipse or a total eclipse occurs so infrequently is that the plane that the moon is spinning around is not aligned with the sun’s plane, and an alignment of both positions of the moon and sun to be in a line is rare.
Eye protection is necessary if you want to see an eclipse due to the intense light that can and will cause irreversible eye damage. Special eye protection is made to protect you from intense sunlight.
Map: Based on (Allison Cake/CBC) Source: Nasa
Unfortunately, the eclipse's path dictated whether you could see it. The 154-mile-wide span spanned across the US and a part of Mexico, so if you could see it this past week, you can call yourself lucky.
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