21 August 2017
New Moon, 0% lit
The Great American Eclipse
The Moon's shadow crossed the United States coast to coast, and an estimated 215 million adults watched it.
Totality is possible only because of an absurd coincidence: the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon and about 400 times further away, so the two discs appear almost exactly the same size. No other planet has a moon that fits so well.
- Date
- 21 August 2017
- Moon computed for
- 18:00 local time, UTC
- Phase
- New Moon
- Illuminated
- 0%
Source: NASA eclipse programme (opens in a new tab)