Expert: Tom Whiting - 4/17/2005

Question
My science teacher and I have been trying to find out when the next total solar eclipse will be in our area. We live in central Illinois, Pana to be exact. We've been studying astronomy for a while, and we would all (classmates and teacher)like to find out when we will be able to experience this event. Please help me out, we've searched for the answer, but never came out successful.Thank You!

Answer
Hi Sarah,
Well, I've been to 5 of them so I know when they all are.

Actually, you won't be too far from the next one across the
continental USA, which is August 21, 2017....about 12 years
and 4 months from now.  (which is the next Saros series
of the one I went to Europe to see on August 11, 1999.)
So we add 18 years, 10 days, and 8 hours to that date........
the 8 hours representing 120 degrees of rotation of the
Earth, so instead of Europe again, the path crosses diagonally across the USA, from Oregon to S. Carolina.
If still in the Illinois area, you'll just have a short drive south
as the centerline goes right over the Carbondale-Marion, Illinois area....about 125 miles south of your location.

We in the continental USA are in a very long 38 year
"dry spell"...from February 26, 1979 up in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, N. Dakota region, until that date above.
Totality time will be about 2 min 23 seconds on the
8/21/2017 event.
Then the next one comes up the Mississippi and Ohio
Valleys, going right over my home town of Erie, PA
on April 8, 2024.....so if still in Illinois, ironically that diagonal
line running from Texas to Maine, again goes right over the
Carbondale-Marion Illinois area...so its the same drive for you!  That's where those two shadow lines cross!

The 2024 event will feature a totality of 4 minutes,
8 seconds in the Moon's shadow, if you are right on
centerline.
For more info on any of the 2000 until 2050 total solar
eclipses, see
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmap/SEmapNA/SEmapNA.html

Hope all this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA

FOLLOW UP:

Actually Sarah, a total solar eclipse occurs about once
every 1.5 years on the average, somewhere on the
Earth's surface....We just had one on April 8, 2005 out in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The next one is on March 29, 2006 goes up through Egypt and Turkey....for 4 minutes 7 seconds....
my wife and I are already making plans to travel to that
one.  (Your class could do the same- what an educational  trip that would be!)
Ironically, that's the same one-the 2006 event ....it's the same Saros series that goes from Texas to Illinois to  Maine in 2024.....add 18 years, 10 days to March 29, 2006,
and you get April 8, 2024 for us in the USA.
Same eclipse, except the Earth has rotated 120 degrees
eastward, so it's the USA's  turn.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA