SAN DIEGO — In just a few days, we'll all be looking up! Hopefully, we will have better weather than this because mom and I are boarding the M.S. Zaandam, but this is not just any cruise; this is an eclipse cruise from San Diego to Mexico!
On this sold-out ship, we will be some of the first people on the planet to witness the Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024.
On board, world-renowned scientists are set to present cutting-edge astronomical and planetary research during the cruise.
This is something my colleagues in the science community have been preparing for for years.
I've been preparing for years for this moment, all the while engaging with local communities by spreading eclipse science and safety.
Now, with the eclipse less than two weeks away, I'll be breaking down everything you need to know about this celestial event so that you can be prepared, too.
The cruise will travel through the Mexican Riviera, but we will be docked directly off the coast of Mazatlán for the eclipse.
Mazatlán is a key city along the path of totality:
1.) It is the first place on the North American mainland to experience totality—the moon's inner shadow, or umbra, makes contact with land first here!
2.) It is one of the locations along the eclipse path with the lowest likelihood of clouds on April 8th.
It was cloudy only 28% of the time on April 8 since 2000 in Mazatlán, compared to about 65% of the time in the NY/PA region.
3.) The ship will place us in 4 minutes and 26 seconds of totality — just 2 seconds shy of the maximum duration available anywhere along the eclipse path! The closer to the centerline of the totality band you can position yourself, the longer time you can spend in totality.
For comparison, Syracuse will spend 1 minute and 27 seconds in darkness. Rochester, Erie, and Buffalo will experience totality for about 3 minutes and 40 seconds, clouds permitting, of course.
This eclipse is set to be even more popular than the 2017 Great American Eclipse, with the path of totality nearly twice as wide and the eclipse duration twice as long. Over 30 million people, one in ten Americans, live in the path of totality, and millions more are expected to travel to it.
Stay tuned for more eclipse updates aboard the Zaandam!