For years, small groups of astronomy enthusiasts have traveled the world in search of the rare solar eclipse. They've embarked on cruises to the middle of the ocean, taken flights into the path of the solar eclipse, and even traveled to Antarctica.
In August 2017, millions of people in the US witnessed a total solar eclipse visible from Oregon to South Carolina, with a partial solar eclipse visible to the rest of the continental US. On April 8, 2024, millions of Americans will once again be in the path of a total solar eclipse, the path of which will stretch from Mexico to Eastern Canada.
The totality path of the April 2024 eclipse will cross a number of US cities, including Austin and Dallas in Texas, Indianapolis in Indiana, Cleveland and Dayton in Ohio, Erie in Pennsylvania, and Buffalo and Rochester in New York. The eclipse will begin around 2:30 PM Eastern Time in Texas and end around 4:30 AM Eastern Time in Maine.
But astrotourism - traveling to national parks, observatories or other natural dark-sky locations to view astronomical events - is not limited to chasing eclipses.
According to a recent study, 80% of Americans and a third of the world's population can no longer see the Milky Way from their homes due to light pollution. As a result, most people must travel to witness meteor showers and other common astronomical events.
I am a space scientist with a passion for teaching physics and astronomy and photographing the night sky. Every summer I spend several nights backpacking in California's Sierra Nevada, where the sky is dark enough to see the Milky Way with the naked eye. My son and I also enjoy taking road trips - often along US Route 395, the Eastern Sierra Scenic Byway - that coincide with eclipses and meteor showers.
Astronomical events are not to be missed
There are two types of eclipses. Lunar eclipses occur when the full moon passes through the Earth's shadow. Solar eclipses occur when the new moon briefly blocks the sun.
There are three types of solar eclipses. During a total solar eclipse, the moon completely covers the sun, with totality lasting up to seven minutes. During totality, those in the path of the eclipse will see the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, behind the moon's silhouette.
The moon's orbit around Earth is an ellipse, so the moon can appear 15% smaller when it is at its farthest point from Earth, its apogee, compared to its size when it is at its closest point to Earth , its perigee. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon does not cover the entire disk of the sun, leaving a ring of sunlight around the moon.
Finally, a partial solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks only part of the sun's disk, as the name implies.
Meteor showers are a much more common astronomical event than eclipses, and they are visible from anywhere in Earth's dark sky. Meteor showers occur when Earth's orbit around the Sun takes it through the dust left behind by a comet. The earth sweeps up the dust like a car speeding through a cloud of insects on the highway.
Meteor showers are named for the constellations from which the meteors appear to come, although it is not necessary to look in that direction to see meteors. The most prominent meteor showers, which occur on approximately the same dates every year, are the Lyrids, named after the constellation Lyra, on April 21-22; the Perseids, named after the constellation Perseus and peaking on the night of August 12 to 13; and the Geminids, named after the constellation Gemini, on December 14-15. The night sky will be largely moonless for the first two years this year, but a nearly full moon will make the 2024 Lyrid shower difficult to see.
Tips for aspiring astrotourists
One of the most important factors to consider when planning a stargazing or meteor shower outing is the phase of the moon. The full moon rises around 6:00 PM and sets at 6:00 AM, making stargazing virtually impossible due to its brightness. For ideal stargazing conditions, the moon should be below the horizon, and the best viewing conditions are during a new moon. You can use a moonrise/moonset calculator to determine the phase of the moon and the rising and setting times for any location on Earth.
Another important factor is the weather. Amateur astronomers always joke that the sky is cloudy during the most interesting astronomical events. For example, most major US cities in the path of the April 2024 solar eclipse have had cloudy skies 60% of the time on April 8 since the year 2000.
Most Americans live in heavily light-polluted areas. A light pollution map such as lightpollutionmap.info can help identify the nearest dark sky location, which in my case is hours away. These maps often use the Bortle dark-sky scale, which reports 1 for extremely dark skies to 9 for very light-polluted city centers.
While you may still see the brightest meteors from the outskirts of the city, the darker your sky, the more meteors you will see. Generally expect to see fewer than 25 meteors per hour. To see the complex structure of the Milky Way with the naked eye, look for a location with a Bortle index of 3 or lower.
It is important to arrive at your chosen location early, preferably during the day. Stumbling around an unfamiliar place in the dark is a recipe for disaster and can also disturb others already in the place. Arriving early also gives your eyes time to adapt to the dark as night falls, as it typically takes 30 minutes or even longer for your eyes to reach their full dark-adapted potential.
Make sure you have a headlamp or flashlight that is set to red light, because red light does not ruin night vision. Avoid using your phone because even a glance at the screen can ruin your eyes' adaptation to the dark. If you are using a sky observation app, switch the app to night mode.
If you're in the path of the April 2024 solar eclipse, stay put. If you are traveling, you can stay overnight in the same location before and after the eclipse to avoid the hours-long traffic jams that eclipse observers experienced in 2017.
Furthermore, you should never look directly at the sun with the naked eye, even during a total solar eclipse. You'll need cheap eclipse glasses to view and fully enjoy the eclipse, but get there early as many stores were out of glasses during the 2017 solar eclipse.
Wherever you travel, don't forget to look up at night and marvel at the beauty of the night sky, away from the city lights.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 5, 2023. This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit organization providing facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: Vahe Peroomian, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Read more: Vahe Peroomian has received funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation in the past. The last year of funding was 2014.
