Los Angeles: Land of Sunshine (With a Brief Blackout, Once in a While)
Ah, Los Angeles. The land of perpetual sunshine, movie stars, and...well, a whole lot of sunshine. But hey, who wouldn't want to live where the sky's perpetually blue and your tan is basically a birthright? But even the City of Angels can't escape a celestial surprise every now and then, and that's where solar eclipses come in. Buckle up, because we're about to dive into the weird and wonderful world of how much eclipse action you can expect in LA.
The Not-So-Shocking Truth: Not Much Here
Let's be honest, Los Angeles isn't exactly the prime spot for catching a total solar eclipse. Those babies are rare, with the moon completely blocking out the sun, and they only cast a narrow shadow on Earth. Los Angeles, with its usual stellar luck, tends to miss out on that dramatic main event.
But fear not, fellow sunbathers! Partial solar eclipses are a whole different story. These are like the dimmer switch version of a total eclipse, where the moon takes a bite out of the sun. Los Angeles gets to experience these partial eclipses more often, like a consolation prize from the cosmos.
When LA Gets to Dim the Lights (Kind Of)
The last partial solar eclipse Los Angeles enjoyed (if you can enjoy a partially blocked sun) was on April 8th, 2024. Angelenos with the proper safety gear (looking at you, colander enthusiasts) were treated to a view of the moon obscuring about 48.6% of the sun at its peak. That's almost half off, folks! Although, let's be real, it probably felt more like someone put on sunglasses a few sizes too big for the sun.
So, When's the Next Cosmic Dimmer Switch Party?
Ah, the million-dollar question. Unfortunately, predicting eclipses is like predicting the weather in Hollywood – it can change on a dime. However, we can look to the wisdom of NASA (those lovely folks who aren't busy making moon bases) for some clues. The next chance Los Angeles might see a partial eclipse is coming up on September 18th, 2024. But hey, that's just a penumbral lunar eclipse, which basically means the Earth dips into the Earth's faint outer shadow. Think of it as a cosmic yawn, not a dramatic dimming of the lights.
The real question is, will Los Angeles ever get a total solar eclipse? The answer, my friends, is a cosmic maybe. According to the internet (which, let's face it, knows everything), the next total solar eclipse gracing Los Angeles with its presence won't be until May 6th, 1724. So yeah, that's a hard pass for most of us.
But hey, there's always the chance they invent teleportation by then, right? Until then, Angelenos, enjoy that sunshine – all of it, most of the time.
