On Monday, 2017 August 21, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from the contiguous United States for the first time since 1979. The track of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in the Pacific Ocean and crosses the USA from west to east through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. Inside the 70-mile-wide path of totality, the Moon will completely cover the Sun as the landscape is plunged into an eerie twilight and the Sun's glorious corona is revealed for nearly 3 minutes. Outside the narrow shadow track, a partial eclipse will be visible from all of North America.
The Road Atlas for the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 contains a comprehensive series of 37 full color maps of the path of totality across the USA. The large scale (1:700,000 or 1 inch = 11 miles) shows both major and minor roads, towns and cities, rivers, lakes, parks, national forests, wilderness areas and mountain ranges.
The path of totality on each map is depicted as a lightly shaded region with the northern and southern limits clearly identified. The total eclipse can only be seen inside this path. The closer one gets to the central line of the path, the longer the total eclipse lasts. Gray lines inside the path mark the duration of the total eclipse in 20 second steps. This makes it easy to estimate the duration of totality from any location in the eclipse path.
Yellow lines running across the path at 2-minute intervals indicate the local time of mid-eclipse. Where they cross the central line (plotted in red) the local time, central line duration of totality and the Sun's altitude are labeled. This eliminates the need to look these details up on a table.
Armed with the "Road Atlas" and the latest weather forecasts, the road warrior is ready to chase totality no matter where it takes him/her along the 2500-mile-long path. This mobile strategy offers the highest probability of witnessing the spectacular 2017 total eclipse in clear skies.
The "Road Atlas" is the complementary publication of "Eclipse Bulletin: Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 August 21."
Fred Espenak is a retired astrophysicist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. His primary research involved infrared spectroscopy of planetary atmospheres. He also became NASA's expert on solar and lunar eclipse predictions and still maintains NASA's official eclipse website (eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov).
Known by his nickname "Mr. Eclipse", he is co-author of the popular book "Totality - Eclipses of the Sun." He also wrote 13 NASA eclipse bulletins, each focusing on a major eclipse. In 2014, Espenak published the comprehensive "Thousand Year Canon of Solar Eclipses: 1501 to 2500" and the complementary volume "Thousand Year Canon of Lunar Eclipses: 1501 to 2500." His most recent publication "Eclipse Bulletin: Total solar Eclipse of 2017 August 21" is a comprehensive guide to that most anticipated event.
Espenak's MrEclipse.com website focuses on eclipse photography while the new EclipseWise.com website is devoted to the dissemination of his latest eclipse predictions. An avid eclipse chaser, he has participated in dozens of eclipse expeditions around the world including remote and unusual locations such as the Sahara, the Bolivian altiplano, Mongolia, Kenya’s Lake Turkana and Antarctica. His enthusiasm for eclipses spills over into public speaking, and he frequently gives talks about his favorite subject.
In 2003, the International Astronomical Union honored him by naming an asteroid "Espenak." Now living in rural Arizona, he spends most clear nights losing sleep and photographing the stars from Bifrost Observatory (AstroPixels.com).
