(NEXSTAR) – For a few special minutes Monday, a total solar eclipse darkened skies across the U.S. If you weren’t in the path of totality – or if it was too cloudy during the big event – there are more opportunities to see eclipses in the coming years. However, you’ll need to either travel far or wait.
When are the next annular or partial eclipses?
For the impatient, there’s an annular solar eclipse slated to occur later this year, on Oct. 2. An annular eclipse is when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, but during a time when the moon is far from us. That makes the moon appear smaller in the sky, so it doesn’t full obscure the sun. During an annular eclipse, the sun appears as a bright ring of light around the dark moon.
But October’s eclipse will only be visible as an annular eclipse parts of South America. The only U.S. state to get any action on Oct. 2 will be Hawaii, which will see the event as a partial solar eclipse early in the morning, as the sun is rising.
There are also a pair of partial solar eclipses are coming up next year, one on March 29, 2025, and another on Sep. 21, 2025. But only the March partial eclipse will have a path over North America, according to NASA. That one will be visible in parts of the Northeast, like Maine and New England; however, it will start early in the morning at around 6:13 a.m. Eastern Time, according to an eclipse tracking site. Its path over the U.S. is small, and its early start time may make it harder to view when the sun is so low in the sky.
When is the next total solar eclipse? Will it be visible in the U.S.?
A total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of the world on Aug. 12, 2026, NASA says, but you’d have to travel to Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Portugal or Russia for a view of totality.
The next time a total solar eclipse will occur over the United States isn’t for another 20 years, on Aug. 23, 2044. It will be visible in three states, according to the Planetary Society: Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Then, less than a year later, a much wider band of the U.S. will be covered with a total solar eclipse. On Aug. 12, 2045, NASA mapping shows a path of totality crossing California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, a tiny part of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. The rest of the U.S. will be able to see a partial eclipse.
After that, the next total solar eclipses over the U.S. won’t be until 2078 and 2099, CBS News reports.
“Natural phenomena are like a Swiss clock,” Virginia Tech astrophysicist Nahum Arav told CBS. “We know exactly when and where they will appear.”
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