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A compilation of the viewable transition of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse.
Kenai Jerome and Henley Kimbrel gaze upward to view the total solar eclipse.
Near-total darkness at 1:31 p.m. on Monday, April 8, during the total solar eclipse.
Photos by Jessica Nohealapa'ahi
When day became night
By Jessica Nohealapa'ahi
The Bandera Prophet
Though clouds concealed most of the transition and totality of today's solar eclipse, the show was nothing less than spectacular.
The universe must have heard the sky gazers and global eclipse chasers who kept their fingers crossed that the rain and storms anticipated in Bandera County would hold off for just a few hours. High confidence in low visibility plagued weather forecasts for more than a week, but on the big day, momentary openings in low-lying clouds allowed intermittent glimpses of the solar eclipse during its transition.
For most locally, totality was obscured behind a thick curtain of clouds, but its arrival was palpable. Within seconds, the temperature dropped and natural mid-day light dimmed to near-total darkness, triggering street and automated lights. Crickets chirped, roosters crowed and dogs howled until the end of the finale, when the event shifted to the hour-long reverse transition.
Considered by many a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the next total solar eclipse will be Aug. 12, 2026, viewable in the Arctic, eastern Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, according to NASA. A year later, on Aug. 2, 2027, another total solar eclipse will carve a path across Egypt and the Red Sea . Australians will have a chance to witness a total solar eclipse on July 22, 2028. In the United States, the next viewable total solar eclipse is estimated to take place Aug. 23, 2044; it will shadow Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.
The universe must have heard the sky gazers and global eclipse chasers who kept their fingers crossed that the rain and storms anticipated in Bandera County would hold off for just a few hours. High confidence in low visibility plagued weather forecasts for more than a week, but on the big day, momentary openings in low-lying clouds allowed intermittent glimpses of the solar eclipse during its transition.
For most locally, totality was obscured behind a thick curtain of clouds, but its arrival was palpable. Within seconds, the temperature dropped and natural mid-day light dimmed to near-total darkness, triggering street and automated lights. Crickets chirped, roosters crowed and dogs howled until the end of the finale, when the event shifted to the hour-long reverse transition.
Considered by many a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the next total solar eclipse will be Aug. 12, 2026, viewable in the Arctic, eastern Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, according to NASA. A year later, on Aug. 2, 2027, another total solar eclipse will carve a path across Egypt and the Red Sea . Australians will have a chance to witness a total solar eclipse on July 22, 2028. In the United States, the next viewable total solar eclipse is estimated to take place Aug. 23, 2044; it will shadow Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.