A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and Earth, briefly blocking some or all of the sunlight from a narrow strip of the planet. It's one of the most striking sights you can witness with your own eyes — and it's also easy to miss if you're not paying attention to the calendar. Click the green Configure button and choose how far ahead you want to be alerted.
Why use a reminder for a solar eclipse?
- Visibility windows are narrow: A total solar eclipse can only be seen along a strip roughly 60-70 miles wide — a reminder set days in advance gives you time to check whether it's visible from where you live, or whether it's worth traveling for.
- Plan equipment and safety gear ahead: Viewing a solar eclipse safely requires proper eclipse glasses or filters — not something you want to be scrambling to find the morning of.
- Don't miss a rare totality: A total solar eclipse is visible from any single spot on Earth roughly once every 375 years on average — if one happens to pass near you, it's genuinely a once-in-a-lifetime alignment worth not sleeping through.
- Track multiple eclipses per year: Solar eclipses occur two to five times a year somewhere on Earth, so a standing reminder means you stay aware of each one as it comes up rather than relying on remembering to check.
How rare is a solar eclipse, really?
It's a common misconception that solar eclipses themselves are rare — they're not. Globally, a solar eclipse of some kind (partial, annular, or total) happens two to five times every year. What's genuinely rare is catching a total eclipse from your own backyard: any given location on Earth sees one, on average, only once every 375 years, though the wait varies enormously by place. New York City last saw one in 1925; Los Angeles is in the middle of a dry spell stretching back over 1,500 years.
Why doesn't this happen every month?
The Moon's orbit around Earth is tilted about 5 degrees relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun, so most new moons pass slightly above or below the Sun rather than directly in front of it. An eclipse can only occur when a new moon lines up near one of the two points (called nodes) where the Moon's orbital path crosses Earth's. This only happens during recurring windows called "eclipse seasons," roughly twice a year.
Total, annular, partial, or hybrid?
Not every solar eclipse looks the same. In a total eclipse, the Moon fully covers the Sun. In an annular eclipse, the Moon is slightly too far from Earth to fully cover the Sun, leaving a glowing ring visible around its edge. A partial eclipse means the Moon only covers part of the Sun's disk, and rare hybrid eclipses shift between total and annular along their path.
So whether you're chasing totality or just curious to see the sky change in the middle of the day, click that green Configure button and let the next eclipse come to you.