Eclipse Bulletin : Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 August 21

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 nation 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.

Eclipse Bulletin: Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 August 21 is the ultimate guide to this highly anticipated event. Written by two of the leading experts on eclipses, the bulletin is a treasure trove of facts on every conceivable aspect of the eclipse. The exact details about the path of the Moon's shadow can be found in a series of tables containing geographic coordinates, times, altitudes, and physical dimensions. A number of high resolution maps plot the total eclipse track across the USA. They show hundreds of cities and towns in the path, the location of major roads and highways, and the duration of totality with distance from the central line.

Local circumstance tables for more than 1000 cities across the USA provide times for each phase of the eclipse along with the eclipse magnitude, duration and Sun's altitude. Additional tables cover the eclipse circumstances for cities in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and Europe. An exhaustive climatological study identifies areas along the eclipse path where the highest probability of favorable weather may be found. A travelogue highlights key locations in the eclipse track from Oregon through South Carolina. Finally, comprehensive information is presented about solar filters and how to safely observe and photograph the eclipse.

For 15 years, Fred Espenak and Jay Anderson published more than a dozen eclipse bulletins for NASA, each one covering a major solar eclipse. Prepared in cooperation with the IAU, the bulletins were internationally recognized as the most authoritative reference for each eclipse. The team has reunited to produce this new bulletin on the 2017 total eclipse through the USA.

Fred Espenak is a retired astrophysicist from NASA/GSFC. 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 the author of the popular book "Totality - Eclipses of the Sun." He is the author of the comprehensive "Thousand Year Canon of Solar Eclipses: 1501 to 2500" and the complementary volume "Thousand Year Canon of Lunar Eclipses: 1501 to 2500." He has also published 13 NASA eclipse bulletins, each focusing on a major eclipse.

Espenak's www.MrEclipse.com website focuses on eclipse photography while the new www.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, and Antarctica. Espenak's enthusiasm for eclipses spills over into public speaking, and he is frequently gives talks about his favorite subject.

In 2003, the International Astronomical Union honored him by naming asteroid 14120, Espenak. Now living in rural Arizona, he spends most clear nights losing sleep and photographing the stars from Bifrost Observatory (www.AstroPixels.com).

Jay Anderson is a meteorologist, formerly with the Meteorological Service of Environment Canada. Astronomy has been a large part of his life since his mid teens, and it was only after graduating with a degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of British Columbia that he adopted meteorology as a second pastime. He has written on the climatology of places along eclipse tracks since 1978, when a solar eclipse was predicted to pass over his home town. He still lives in that home town - Winnipeg - with his wife Judy and an assortment of past and present cats.