Seeing a total solar eclipse from anywhere on Earth is awesome, but seeing it from the path of totality is spectacular! A total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth and completely blocks the Sun. Getting to see the totality of he solar eclipse depends on where you are on Earth. Totality is when the moon fully blocks the Sun from our view on Earth. If you are not on the path of totality, you can still see part of the eclipse. Phoenix saw 64 percent of the total eclipse.
On April 8, 2024, the total solar eclipse occurred. Since I am a big outer space lover, my parents decided to take me to see it from the path of totality. This is a day I’ll remember forever. There were many cities in the United States where totality could be seen on this day. We flew from Phoenix to Dallas, Texas.
We spent the day at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. This museum was really awesome. There was a lot to see and do there and I was so excited for the eclipse to begin. The eclipse began in Dallas at 12:20 in the afternoon and it reached totality at 1:40 p.m. Totality lasted for a full four minutes. We went outside around noon and chose a spot on the grass to watch. When the eclipse started, we put on our special glasses that protected our eyes from damage while we were looking at the sun. There was a big countdown to totality and scientists and astronomers talked about what we could expect to see. They told us we would
be able to take off our glasses during totality. That can only happen if you are on the path of totality because otherwise you could hurt your eyes. I was so excited to be able to take my glasses off during this eclipse!
When totality happened, it was so exciting! Suddenly the sun was totally gone and the only light we saw was from the sun’s corona. That is the sun’s outer atmosphere and it looked like a white ring of light around the moon. It was so amazing. Everyone was cheering, yelling and clapping and people even cried, too. I jumped up and down yelling, my dad was cheering and my mom was cheering and crying.
The sky became so much darker. It was like twilight and we could see the stars in the sky right in the middle of the day. Taking off our safety glasses was so cool! While we looked, the scientists pointed out that we could see a solar flare at the bottom of the sun’s corona. That is a burst of radiation coming from the sun and it looked like a little white dot. We sat and watched in full totality for the four minutes and I loved every second of it. Suddenly, there was an announcement for us to put our glasses back on as the moon continued to move, and even the tiniest sliver of the sun peeking back out again made the sky so much brighter. Music played “Here Comes The Sun” and people cheered more and more as the sky went back to the way it looked before totality. It was really amazing! After totality, we put our glasses back on for a little bit of time to enjoy the end of the eclipse too.
I am so grateful I got to travel for this total eclipse and experience seeing full totality during it. It was an experience I will never ever forget. The next total solar eclipse that can be seen from the United States is in 2044. That is 20 years from now and I don’t think I can wait that long! I am hoping to be able to see the full totality of the next total eclipse in 2026. I would have to ask my parents to take me to another country to see totality again for that eclipse and I hope I will be lucky enough to get to do that.
