Where Michigan viewers can see total solar eclipse in April

A sliver of southeast Michigan for a few minutes will be among 15 states to observe the total solar eclipse in April, the last to be seen from the contiguous United States for two decades, according to NASA.

In a stretch from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, the Moon’s umbral shadow will hover across the continent during the total solar eclipse on April 8, NASA said on its website. The eclipse will last one hour and 50 minutes.

The path includes a sliver of the state near Monroe. A visualization on the agency’s website predicts the event in the Great Lakes State around 3:12-3:13 p.m. EST. Totality will last up to 3 minutes, 21 seconds in the U.S. and Canada, according to Abbey Interrante for science.nasa.gov.

“The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk,” NASA said.

In the United States, the eclipse’s path will touch Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, the extreme northwest corner of Tennessee, Illinois, far western Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and “the extreme southeast corner” of Michigan, NASA said.

A total solar eclipse, according to NASA, happens when the moon passes between the sun and earth, completely blocking the face of the sun, producing darkness “as if it were dawn or dusk.”

“A total solar eclipse is the only type of solar eclipse where viewers can momentarily remove their eclipse glasses (which are not the same as regular sunglasses) for the brief period of time when the moon is completely blocking the sun,” the agency said.

The total solar eclipse in April will be the last visible from the contiguous U.S. until 2044,” NASA said. The last total solar eclipse in North America occurred on Aug. 21, 2017.

The path of totality, according to NASA, “where viewers will see the Moon totally block the Sun … is much wider” than the 2017 eclipse, said Interrante.

jaimery@detroitnews.com

X: @wordsbyjakkar