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When will the Last Total Solar Eclipse Occur?

-- Richard | May 2, 2024

Visual of different stages of an eclipse

Question:

Sorry if loads of other people have already asked, but –
Currently, being 400 times smaller but 400 times nearer the Moon almost exactly covers the Sun during an eclipse. However, it used to be nearer and is gradually moving away, so we must be living in a fortunate era when phenomena such as the diamond ring and the solar corona can be observed. In the past the Moon would have covered them entirely, in the future they will be lost against the peripheral solar disk.
Just how long has this window of optimal observation lasted?
Best wishes,
Richard
Tunbridge Wells
UK

-- Richard

Answer:

Richard Fienberg provided the answer to this question in a post to Sky & Telescope in 2006. As you note, due to the fact that the Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth (at a rate of about 3.8 cm per year), beginning in about 620 million years the occurrence of total solar eclipses will become very erratic, and will happen less-and-less frequently. The last total solar eclipse will occur in about 1.2 billion years.

-- Jeff Mangum

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