I wonder if the Total Eclipse will be visible at anytime in the sim on April 8th? Have previous Eclipses been rendered? Are there known addons that add this realism? EDIT: I haven’t selected ONE answer because I believe every reply has helped determine what the Sim is capable of reproducing
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You see the moon pass in front of the sun but that’s it, there are no visual effects applied to the game or the sun. The appearance of the moon while partially eclipsing the sun is also not visually accurate (you can’t see a partial solar eclipse with the naked eye)
Please, nobody seeing the eclipse happening in the sim run outside and stare into the sun
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Please, nobody seeing the eclipse happening in the sim run outside and stare into the sun
I’m in the path of totality so I will be running out to look at the sun at totality only!
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We’re in the path of totality as well, wife ordered glasses for the family to watch.
The schools are closed that day due to “safety” concerns.
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I saw one off the coast of Turkey in 2006 I believe. It was pretty awesome. It was on a cruise ship. There was a guy there that calculated exactly when we would be in the path totality and when it would leave down to the second. If you’re in the path of totality definitely step outside and see it. It’s usually a once in a lifetime thing.
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I’m lucky to have seen two total eclipses, it is an incredible experience, it would be awesome to have it in the sim and even more awesome to “chase” the eclipse in a very fast aircraft to enjoy a longer totality.
For me the most amazing thing was to face away from the sun, see the very dark twilight and the stars, and then turn around to find a very strange dark disk floating in the middle of the sky, it is outerwordly. I could begin to understand how this experience impacted civilization along history.
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About 4:24 here in Texas.
Seriously. This was the major takeaway also in my 2017 experience. I always imagined it getting noticeable towards totality. Nope. Even movies don’t get this right. Other than the shadows looking weird the sun still is a fierce point of brightness you can’t even squint at until it’s like a few seconds away from totality. So the suddenness with which it descends to darkness and then looking up to see a dark ball wreathed in “flame” (corona) where the sun used to be? Yea I’d fall to my knees and scream too if I didn’t know what was happening
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I saw the 2017 total eclipse from Nashville airport (KBNA). One of the coolest things I have ever witnessed. If you are anywhere within a few hours drive time, find a way to see it! The risk of course is clouds/bad weather so plan accordingly. Also, it’s impossible to get a good picture of it with your phone or even a camera so enjoy it visually once it is in totality. If anything, just put in on a tripod and take video of your surroundings as totality occurs. It will be a waste of time trying to point it at the eclipse (from personal experience!). Take in the 360 degree ‘sunset’ around you and the planets that will become visible (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter). A guy standing next to me was still wearing his eclipse glasses in totality and I had to tell him to take them off 
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Concorde protptype 001 was modified to do just that in the early '70s. They installed small telescopes and cameras through specially designed cutouts in the fuselage crown and then flew across Africa at Mach 2+ to chase an eclipse.
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How fast do you have to go to keep up with it?
Faster than the Concorde. Maybe SR-71 or even X15, depending on where along the path of totality you’re located (the speed changes along the path).
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It really doesn’t matter. You are not going to beat Earth’s rotation. The idea is to just make the totality longer, as long as you can based on the plane speed.
Concorde was used but even without Concorde there are a lot of private flights for eclipse chasing these days, the duration is one advantage but the biggest is to be above the clouds and be 100% sure you will witness the phenomenon.
If you ask me, always try to see a total eclipse in person and in nature first, then once you have already done that you can go in a plane.
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Not to be pedantic, but it’s not the Earth’s rotation that you need to beat. The umbral shadow moves opposite to the Earth’s rotation, and it moves a lot faster too.
Other than that, I 100% agree with you. People should go somewhere outdoors and enjoy the eclipse. If they’re lucky, they’ll have clear skies. If they’re even luckier, they’ll have towering cumulus clouds out toward the horizon to provide a large white surface for the umbral shadow to visibly sweep over, giving a true sense of its speed and size. Words can’t do the experience justice.
Edit: I should add, because somebody is going to be like “buh, buh, buh but!”, that what I mean by “opposite to the Earth’s rotation” is that you need to fly westbound to keep up with the sun, while you need to fly eastbound to keep up with the umbral shadow.
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The math involved is beyond me, but I’m still curious exactly how fast (in knots) one would have to fly to “chase” the eclipse? Would this depend on degrees latitude maybe? To keep this MSFS-related, would mach 10 (the Darkstar) do it? Thanks in advance to any mathematicions here.
-Redeye
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as per https://www.space.com/how-fast-will-total-solar-eclipse-2024-travel
11:37 UT on April 8, the event will begin as an eclipsed sunrise in the Pacific Ocean, during which the moon’s shadow will be travelling at a whopping 10,439,792 mph (16,801,217 kph). As it ends as an eclipsed sunset in the Atlantic, it will be travelling at 5,535,176 mph (8,908,002 kph). However, close to Nazas, Mexico — the point of the greatest eclipse where the centers of the sun, moon, and Earth are in perfect synergy (alignment) — it will be moving at a pedestrian 1,565 mph (2,519 kph). The shadow will slow down to that point and speed up after, so as the moon’s shadow enters the U.S. in Texas, it will speed up slightly to 1,597 mph (2,570 kph). It will then pick up the pace across the U.S. and, as it leaves Newfoundland in Canada for the Atlantic, it will be moving at 4,727 mph (7,607 kph).
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Well, since Mach 10.2 (Tom Cruise / Darkstar) is 7,826 mph (from ScreenRant), Go Darkstar! Thanks SquintyComet88 for the reference.
- Redeye
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The Darkstar is not precisely the best plane for sightseeing 
It is faster than the Hindenburg, that’s true.
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I asked Chat GTP, which tells me that the speed of the core shadow on April 8 will travel at a speed of roughly 1.000 mph!
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Schools are closed for safety concerns? Wow. How soft we’ve become. Admin, I realize it’s waaay off topic, but I had to comment.
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