It's been 99 years since a total solar eclipse crossed the United States from coast to coast. So it's no surprise that citizens came out in droves on Aug. 21 to watch the moon pass between the sun and Earth, completely blocking out the sun in some locations. Many parts of the country were overrun with people gazing up at the sky to witness what could have been a once-in-a-lifetime astrological event — a total solar eclipse. Those along this 70-mile-wide (112-kilometer-wide) path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina were part of a rare event when the moon blocked out all of the sun's light, temperatures dropped and darkness fell — even if it was just for a few minutes.
One city in the path of Monday's eclipse was Carbondale, Illinois. Carbondale also has the distinction of being in the path of totality during the next solar eclipse sweeping across North America on April 8, 2024. "It's going to go from Mexico to Texas, into the Ohio River Valley, upstate New York and New England, and it even crosses Carbondale," Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said during a live webcast from Charleston, South Carolina, Monday. It typically takes about 375 years for a total solar eclipse to pass over the same place on Earth twice. So Carbondale, you can go ahead and start planning now.
