It’s not too early…

April 8, 2024. That’s the date of the next total eclipse of the sun in the United States. It seems like a long time from now, but it’s not too early to start thinking about it. Your first decision must be that you will be in the path of totality. I’ve heard people say, “but I saw 99% of totality in 2017, isn’t that good enough?” The short answer is no! Absolutely not! Seeing a 99% eclipse is like going to the Super Bowl and listening to the game on your car radio in the parking lot outside the stadium. When you see totality, you’re sitting on the 50-yard line.

OK, now that you’ve decided you’ll be in the path of totality, you can start planning. Where will you be? What images do you want? What gear do you need? This eclipse will be a doozy, maxing out at more than 4 minutes of totality along much of its path across Mexico, the US, and southeast Canada. That’s almost twice as long as the eclipse in 2017. That precious 4 minutes will pass quickly so you need to plan if you want to capture a worthy collection of images.

I’ll be speaking about solar eclipses and photography this Tuesday, May 23, at the monthly meeting of the Southern Appalachian Nature Photographers (SANP). The meeting begins at 6:30 pm EDT at the Watershed Building on the campus of the Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church, 9132 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, Tennessee. The meeting is free and open to non-members. I hope to see you there!

PS, if you can’t attend this meeting, think about attending my eclipse photography class at the University of Tennessee in August. This class is two four-hour sessions held on August 5 and 12. I taught a similar class in 2017. It was a lot of fun and several attendees captured some great images. If you’re interested, google “university of tennessee eclipse program” and you’ll find it.