A total solar eclipse next month stretching 6,000 miles long and 160 miles wide likely will be the most widely viewed solar event in history, astronomers say.
The July 11 eclipse, whose length won't be exceeded for 140 years, will stretch from Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean and Mexico and Central America to Brazil."It will be visible for about three hours, in various stages, along that stretch that runs primarily through Mexico," said Paul Maley of the Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society in Houston.
An estimated 40 million people are expected to watch the moon pass in front of the sun at midday, casting the area in total darkness. Millions more, like those in Texas and Southern California, will be able to see a partial eclipse.
"This will be really exciting because literally thousands of people will be traveling into Mexico to see this eclipse," Maley said. "More people will be seeing this than any other eclipse in history."
Tourist reservations for that period in Hawaii, Mexico's Baja California and Mexico City have long since been booked and overbooked, Maley said.
For Texans, Brownsville probably will offer the best view with 78 percent of the sun eclipsed.
Outside Texas, Los Angeles will have a maximum eclipse of 69 percent, while 58 percent of the sun will be obscured in New Orleans.
On the East Coast, people hardly will notice. In New York, 2 percent of the sun will be obscured.