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BuggsMcBuggs · 04-21-2022, 12:15 AM

Never too early to start planning.

Next Total Eclipse is less than 2 years away. April 8 2024. The totality swath will be from Mexico through Texas and on up through Maine. The Western Side of the swath will come up through the Rio Grand Valley Just skirting Del Rio. The Eastern Side of the swath will skirt San Antonio. It will also skirt Ft Worth on the west side and Texarkana on the east side.

Personally, I'd like to incorporate a trip to the Padre Island Nat Seashore. So I am focusing on spots in Texas

Ray,IN · 04-22-2022, 06:05 PM

I'm staying home. Our house is right under the center-line of the eclipse in my state.

BuggsMcBuggs · 04-22-2022, 11:36 PM

sounds like clean livin' to me.

rideandfly · 05-14-2022, 06:52 AM

Plan to camp in Arkansas for the next eclipse. We were camping during the last eclipse in Tennessee.

Few photos from the last eclipse:

Isaac-1 · 05-14-2022, 09:37 AM

We may be interested depending on the location, we are planning to view it from somewhere in Texas. I have been casually scouting out locations on our various trips through Texas the last couple of years. Closest point of approach to our home in Louisiana is only about 250 miles away in east Texas. We drove to Wyoming for the last big solar eclipse, so 250-500 miles to some place in Texas is not that big of deal.

A few things to note about this eclipse versus the one in 2017, first of all this one has a much wider path of totality, and on the centerline will tend to last longer. The 2017 eclipse had a path of totality only 15-20 miles wide in most places, this one has a path of totality that is about 100 miles across. On the centerline in parts of Texas there will be over 4 and a half minutes of totality, which is nearly double the time we had on the centerline last time in 2017. In addition to this the path of totality passes over far more major population centers this time with nearly all of the DFW metroplex being in the path of totality, along the Austin, and the western suburbs of San Antonio, not to mention cities further east like Indianapolis, etc.

Now for the down side, it is happening in April of 2024, so the chance of clouds along the path is much higher than the 2017 eclipse which happened in August, and there is no point along the path with better than 50/50 odds of clear skies, most places are considerably less than 50%. My intention then is to have back up location along the path to relocate to if needed to dodge the clouds, unfortunately we will likely not get a good idea until a few days before the event.

astrnmrtom · 05-15-2022, 12:05 AM

Not only is it location, location, location, but it's also weather, weather, weather. This is a rainy period for the US.

Much of the path in Mexico has the best prospects for clear skies, and it starts going downhill one the path hits Texas, and continues downhill from there. Note however, sometimes the cooling atmosphere as the eclipse progresses can cause clearing in marginal areas, but knowing where is impossible.

Here's a page that shows historical cloud cover averages for the path: https://eclipse.aas.org/eclipse-america-2024