04/09/2026
Two years ago, on April 8, 2024, I was fortunate enough to stand in the path of a solar eclipse for the second time.
That day, for the first time in the United States since 2017 and the last time until 2044, the Moon fully obscured the sun for several minutes along a path stretching from Mexico to Nova Scotia, passing over portions of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, an incredibly small part of Tennessee (about 38 square miles), Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, an incredibly smaller portion of Michigan (about 20 square miles), Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
The experience in 2024 was different in that totality lasted for longer in most locations than it did in 2017. Instead of 90 seconds in the Moon's shadow, I had 2.5 minutes. And instead of traveling across the country, I stayed in the northeast and viewed the event with my now wife and some friends.
These images show what I was able to capture during that time:
1.) A 13-exposure stack of the Moon and the silvery, intricate structure of the Sun's corona during totality.
2.) The Bailey Bead's phenomenon, which occurs when the last rays of sunlight are broken up by the varying topography on the Moon's surface, shines next to pink solar prominences just to the top left of the Moon. This was the moment immediately before totality began.
3.) About a second after the Bailey's Beads image, the last bits of sunlight were blocked, revealing more solar prominences.
4.) The end of totality when the first ray of sunlight reappeared. The Earth would fit through the gap in the triangular solar prominence at the bottom left.
5.) Seconds after totality ended, the Sun reemerged, creating the classic "diamond ring" effect.
6.) My viewing location in East Burke, VT during totality.
