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Rachel (LM)

When would be the next solar eclipse that we could see from the US, especially in western states? thanks...

Rachel-- The next total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. will occur on Aug. 22, 2017, and its path of totality will run from the Pacific NW to Charleston, S.C. 

-Charles Fulco

 Hi Rachel,

 The next total solar eclipse in the contental US will be in 2017.

There is a bigger version here:  http://www.mcglaun.com/eclipse/2017/maps/whole-us.jpg

 Also it will be a partial eclipse in other places - see here: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2017Aug21T.GIF 

There will be annular eclipse before then in 2012 that will be visible in the western US. In an annular eclise you still see a bright ring around the Moon.

A map showing where that will be is here: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2012May20A.GIF 

Terry 

Hi Rachel,

NASA has a nice tool on their eclipse web site that will let you see the dates of the upcoming and past eclipses visible from a particular city.  You can try this for yourself here: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/JSEX/JSEX-USA.html

I don't know what city you live in, so I ran the eclipse tool for Denver, CO and I looked for eclipses between the year 2000 and 2100.  Unfortunately, there will not be any total solar eclipses visible from Denver, CO during this century.  However, there will be many partial solar eclipses visible from Denver, CO.  The next partial solar eclipse visible from Denver, CO will be on May 20, 2012, starting at around 17:22 or 5:22 pm and ending around sunset. You can try using this tool yourself if you would like to see more future solar eclipse times, or look up the times of solar eclipses in other cities.

Solar eclipses are generally only visible on a narrow strip on the Earth's surface called the eclipse path.  This is why you may have to wait a very, very, very long time for a total solar eclipse to be visible in your city even though there can be more than one solar eclipse during a year.  Many scientists travel to far away places to view total solar eclipses.

Kris