Why is the American Eclipse on April 8, 2024 such a big deal?  Partial to full eclipses are common however most eclipses happen over the vast oceans or some states will get partial eclipses.  North America will get a full eclipse experience (the totality part) and about 15 states will go dark (like dusk or dawn) for about four minutes as the moon passes over the sun from 1:40pm to 1:44pm, on April 8, this Monday.  

https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk.

The link above from NASA, has great information along with 3D visualization models to play with.

The next full eclipse in America with occur in 2045. 

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2045-august-12

An Eclipse Never Comes Alone! A solar eclipse always occurs about two weeks before or after a lunar eclipse. Usually, there are two eclipses in a row, but other times, there are three during the same eclipse season.

​We have our glasses and ready for a party on Monday, literally....it's my mom's birthday.  We're bringing her glasses and we are all going outside to view the eclipse.  The only possible glitch in this little moment is cloud cover.  We're expecting severe storms later on Monday, but hopefully, the clouds will part for these few minutes.

Some history on how scientist were able to predict solar eclipses based on the early work of Edmond Halley.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

If you had to pick one turning point, it might have been the morning of April 22, 1715, when a solar eclipse loomed over London. The British polymath Edmond Halley, best remembered as the namesake of Halley’s comet, had foretold it. He’d published a broadsheet that included a map of the path that the moon’s shadow would draw over England. That year, England had a freshly crowned king with a rebellion already brewing against him; by demystifying the eclipse with a prediction, Halley hoped to neutralize its power as an omen.

Even earlier work done by ancient scientists in Mesopotamia.

By around 600 BCE in Mesopotamia, Assyrian and Babylonian priest-mathematicians had scoured through the dates of past eclipses recorded in clay tablets, hoping to develop strategies for inferring when the next eclipse might happen. Eclipses worried kings in these cultures, and soon, with the invention of the zodiac and personal horoscopes, the need to keep tabs on the positions of the sun, moon and planets would concern everyone.

So far, we have complete cloud cover today.  I'm not sure we will be able to witness the eclipse.  We have severe storms coming through today and tonight causing this cloud cover.

I've heard that some highways will be closed going into downtown Dallas and there's a lot of people expecting to line the highways and parking lots to see the eclipse.  Hopefully, the clouds will part.

Here are two pictures I captured of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.  I have other pictures to share, just have to sort through them.  The eclipse was an amazing event.  So glad to be able to experience it with my dd and there were so many neighbors at home watching for it too, but we didn't know it until we are all of the voices echoing around our neighborhood, with their dogs and even an owl joined it.  The owl, must have thought it was night time.

I found this article on what people were experience during the eclipse.  I know several people, including myself that have had headaches for days and vertigo. 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/social-media-users-claim-eclipse-32532556?int_source=nba

While the eclipse certainly left some people feeling off, NASA has previously dispelled the misconception that the phenomenon has an impact on human health. In a post ahead of the last solar eclipse visible in the US, which happened back in 2017, the space agency said: "There is no physical relationship between a total solar eclipse and your health, any more than there is a relationship between your health and a new moon.

So I guess myself and my friends can blame our symptoms on the pollen in the air?