Why Two Islands Will See A Total Solar Eclipse On Different Days
The Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait are separated by the International Date Line with Big ... More Diomede Island (Russia) 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede (United States). (Photo by Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2018/)
When is the next eclipse in the U.S.? On March 30, 2033 — exactly eight years from today — a total solar eclipse will occur in Alaska and the Bering Strait.
It will bring a dark totality for up to two minutes and 37 seconds, with the maximum close to Barrow/Utqiagvikill in Alaska. However, two islands close to each other in the Bering Strait will experience a totality theoretically 21 hours apart. How can that be?
Here's everything you need to know about the next total solar eclipse in the U.S. — the 'Great Bering Strait''eclipse.
New supermoons cause all total solar eclipses, and this one is no different. At 7:10 UTC, when a new moon is just 11 hours after swinging closest to Earth — so appearing big enough to block the sun in the sky — its dark umbral shadow will forge a path of totality across Provideniya, Anadyr and Uelen in far eastern Russia and Nome, Utqiaġvik (Barrow) and Kotzebue in Alaska in mid-morning. Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau in Alaska will see a big partial solar eclipse.
This is one of the more remote eclipses — just 67,600 will see totality, according to Timeanddate. A partial solar eclipse will be seen in 45 U.S. states.
Big Diomede and Little Diomede — three miles apart in the Bering Strait between Alaska and the U.S. and Siberia in Russia — are known as Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Island, respectively.
They're split by the International Date Line, putting Big Diomede in Russia (Tomorrow Island) and Little Diomede in the U.S. (Yesterday Island). Big Diomede is almost one day ahead of Little Diomede.
This total solar eclipse— which brings a brief darkness in the day — occurs during peak viewing season for the aurora borealis, offering a potential double celestial event. A lack of light pollution in Alaska and the fact that auroras are twice as likely close to the March equinox make it a possibility.
The four main places in Alaska where eclipse chasers will gather are likely to be:
Totality: 09:59 a.m. (Eclipse 11 degrees above the horizon, 2 minutes 35 seconds)
The most northerly settlement in the U.S. at 71.2° N at the extreme northern edge of Alaska is close to the point of maximum eclipse.
Totality: 10:00 a.m. (Eclipse 13.9 degrees above the horizon, 1 minute 36 seconds)
The eclipse will occur highest in the sky here, so will be easier to see. It's close to Deadhorse at the end of Alaska's famous Dalton Highway.
Totality: 09:50 a.m. (Eclipse 9.3 degrees above the horizon, 2 minutes 31 seconds)
This Inupiat town at 66 degrees north is on the Baldwin Peninsula in Kotzebue Sound, 26 miles above the Arctic Circle.
Totality: 09:46 a.m. (Eclipse 8.1 degrees above the horizon, 2 minutes 28 seconds)
Reachable only by plane, Nome at 64 degrees north, the end of the annual long-distance Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race each March.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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