On Monday the 8th of April, areas of North America were treated to the once in a lifetime experience of witnessing a total solar eclipse. This phenomenon only occurs when the sun, moon and earth are in a specific alignment that means the moon completely covers the sun – this is referred to as ‘totality’. Countries along the path experienced a brief moment of darkness (the length of time changes for each eclipse but in this case, it lasted around 4.5 minutes) with only the corona of the sun being seen. The corona is the outer atmosphere of the sun that can only be seen during a total solar eclipse; this makes the phenomenon a vital time for scientists to research the sun and its corona.
Despite the event as a whole only lasting two hours, this was the first total solar eclipse this century to be seen in all three North American countries: Canada, the United States of America and Mexico. Total solar eclipses occur every 18 months however they tend to be visible in places not inhabited by humans such as over the oceans; they also change locations. For this reason, in one area, a total eclipse can only be seen once every 400 years.
With events being organised far in advance, many people in North America gathered round together to immerse themselves in this experience with many being brought to tears by the overwhelming emotion of the total solar eclipse.
In the UK, the last total solar eclipse was seen in 1999 with the only place to witness it being Cornwall. It is predicted that the next total solar eclipse to be visible in the UK will be in September 2090 however other countries will experience them before then with the closest location being Northern Spain in 2026.