The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon, but it’s also 400 times farther away from us—a glorious cosmic coincidence that has the moon precisely covering the sun’s face when the two align. The result is a total solar eclipse. The alignment is visible only within a narrow band, the path of totality, which will arc across North America on April 8. (The last total eclipse on the continent was in August 2017.) More than 40 million people live within the totality path, and millions more are a few hours away. Spring weather will affect visibility; much of the northeastern U.S. and maritime Canada tends to be cloudy this time of year. Remember that “no one who has ever traveled to see totality has regretted the effort.” PATH OF TOTALITY The moon’s shadow hits land in Sinaloa, Mexico, and runs up to Labrador, Canada, crossing the continent in just an hour and 35 minutes. Within the shaded region, totality lasts longest at the centerline, reaching four and a half minutes in some places.