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People traveling to see totality, likely numbering in the millions for this eclipse, will rely on maps that show the predicted location of this path. The math used to make eclipse maps was worked out by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel and William Chauvenet in the 19th century, long before computers and the precise astronomical data gathered during the Space Age.

In keeping with their paper and pencil origins, traditional eclipse calculations pretend that all observers are at sea level and that the Moon is a smooth sphere centered on its center of mass. Reasonably accurate maps, including this one, are drawn based on those simplifying assumptions. Those who want greater accuracy are usually referred to elevation tables and plots of the lunar limb.

This animation shows the umbra and its path in a new way. Elevations on the Earth's surface and the irregular lunar limb (the silhouette edge of the Moon's disk) are both fully accounted for, and they both have dramatic and surprising effects on the shape of the umbra and the location of the path. To read more about these effects, go here.

The animation runs at a rate of 30× real time — every minute of the eclipse takes two seconds in the animation. The oblique view emphasizes the terrain of the umbral path. For an overhead view, go here.

Earth radius6378.137 km
EllipsoidWGS84
GeoidEGM96
Moon radius1737.4 km
Sun radius696,000 km (959.645 arcsec at 1 AU)
EphemerisDE 421
Earth orientationearth_070425_370426_predict.bpc (ΔT corrected)
Delta UTC69.184 seconds (TT – TAI + 37 leap seconds)
ΔT68.917 seconds
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The dark gray is the closest to the true shape. || umbra.0526_print.jpg (1024x576) [40.0 KB] || umbra.0526_searchweb.png (320x180) [19.1 KB] || umbra.0526_thm.png (80x40) [2.8 KB] || umbra_shapes_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [7.3 MB] || umbra_shapes_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [4.4 MB] || shapes (1920x1080) [0 Item(s)] || umbra_shapes_720p30.webm (1280x720) [10.0 MB] || umbra_shapes_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [1.9 MB] || solar-eclipse-umbra-shapes.hwshow [214 bytes] || ", "release_date": "2016-12-13T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T23:09:56.262293-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 418909, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004500/a004517/umbra.0526_print.jpg", "filename": "umbra.0526_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This animation shows the shape of the Moon's umbral shadow during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, calculated at three different levels of detail. 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Taking observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes, Caspi will capture the clearest images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere — the corona — to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet’s surface. || ", "release_date": "2017-07-25T09:30:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:47:31.667002-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 412652, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012100/a012179/AmirCaspi_Jets_print.jpg", "filename": "AmirCaspi_Jets_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The two jets will observe the total eclipse for about three and a half minutes each as they fly over Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee. 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By combining moon's terrain, heights of land forms on Earth, and the angle of the sun, Wright is able to show the eclipse path with the greatest accuracy to date. || ", "release_date": "2016-12-14T12:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:48:03.972681-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 418574, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012400/a012412/eclipsethumb.jpg", "filename": "eclipsethumb.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Hear data visualizer Ernie Wright discuss the map in the video above. To see the maps unedited, watch the two videos below.Music credit: Life Choices by Eric ChevalierComplete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }