Solar Eclipse

America has been in total eclipse meltdown today, although not literally hopefully.

Mind you I was standing on Wall Street in New York earlier and was about the only person on the street without those eclipse glasses. The sun was bright and I am not sure my ray-bans cut it.

The last solar eclipse in the United States where most of the country got to see at least a partial blocking of the sun was in 2017 (Trump was famously caught squinting up at it from the balcony of the White House). Before 2017, it was 1918!

The path of the eclipse began over the South Pacific Ocean, and continued across Mexico before entering the United States in Texas, and then complete totality was witnessed in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and finally Maine.

The eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5.16pm local time.

Florida’s totality was rated around 50 odd percent, but it was meant to be greater in New York City where I flew into this afternoon, not for the eclipse I must add, sadly work, but many thousands of Americans have been descending on those places that was expecting the full eclipse treatment.

Even the most awful of motel rooms were said to be charging up to $1,000 a night for the privilege.

Anyways in New York City this afternoon it was cloudy and I probably wasn’t in the best spot, but for a few seconds around 3.25pm a little darkness fell and then the incandescent sun burnt bright and everyone went back to their office!

My iPhone photos were rubbish sadly.

The next eclipse in the United States in 2044, but the UK only has to wait until August, 2026.