by George Koch III

While New Hampshire will not get a total solar eclipse, there will be approximately a 60% occlusion of the moon in front of the Sun this afternoon.

You can watch the live NASA stream here:

https://www.nasa.gov/eclipselive/#NASA+TV+Public+Channel

If you are going to watch this event, please make sure that whatever you are using to view the eclipse through (such as solar eclipse lenses) are ISO 12312-2 2015 compliant. Further details can be found here from NASA on ensuring that you are using proper lenses.

One of the most frequently asked question is:

Why isn’t a solar eclipse every month?

A great animation for visual learners can be found here:

https://www.space.com/37269-why-solar-eclipse-arent-every-month-animation.html

The short answer is due to the rotation of the Earth around the Sun relative to the rotation of our Moon around Earth, as well as the rotation plane that the Moon is in, it may be a total eclipse, an annular solar eclipse or no eclipse at all.

Another common question that is asked:

Why is this total eclipse different than any other eclipse? Doesn’t an eclipse happen each year that can be seen somewhere on the surface of Earth?

Another reference from:

https://www.space.com/25644-total-solar-eclipses-frequency-explained.html

While it is true that an eclipse will probably occur and can be viewed somewhere on the surface of Earth each year, the time between eclipses that can be seen at the same location on the surface of Earth varies. For example, if you view the total eclipse in St. Louis, MO, you won’t see another one for over five centuries!