The Solar Eclipse Simulator

Next month Americans will have the chance to see a solar eclipse. On Monday August 21st everyone in the United States, even Alaska and Hawaii, will be able to witness at least a partial solar eclipse. If you want to know how partial the eclipse will be where you live then you need to use the Solar Eclipse Simulator.

If you enter your zipcode into Vox's Solar Eclipse Simulator you can view a simulation of what the moon passing in front of the sun will look like from your location. The simulation includes information on what time the eclipse will peak and what percentage of the sun will be obscured.

If you want to see a total solar eclipse then Vox has also got you covered. The Solar Eclipse Simulator includes a Mapbox map which reveals the closest point to your location where you can view a total solar eclipse. It even tells you how far you have to travel to get there.

Before booking an hotel however you should consult NOAA's Cloudiness Map of the Eclipse. This map not only shows you where you can see a total eclipse (the umbral path) but also tells you the chance of avoiding clouds along the eclipse's path (based on historical weather data).

NASA's Total Solar Eclipse Interactive Map also shows the path of the eclipse across the United States. NASA's map doesn't include information about the likelihood of cloud cover but it does allow you to find out the duration of totality (how long the sun will be obscured) anywhere along the eclipse's path.

If you can't see this year's total solar eclipse then you can still find out when there may be a solar eclipse near you. You can now tell the Washington Post your year of birth and they will show you the path of every solar eclipse happening in your lifetime on an interactive globe.

Here’s Every Total Solar Eclipse Happening in Your Lifetime tells you how many solar eclipses are going to happen around the world between now and your 100th birthday.