This is a diagram of solar and lunar eclipses. Eclipses don't happen every day, but they are predictable. People have known about the April 8 solar eclipse years before the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017.
Why was the 2017 eclipse so special? According to Wikipedia---
The
August 2017 eclipse was the first with a path of totality crossing the
Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the U.S. since the solar eclipse of 1918.
Also, its path of totality made landfall exclusively within the United
States, making it the first such eclipse since the country's declaration
of independence in 1776.
Do you remember the Post Office issued commemorative Eclipse stamps? Do you remember then-President Donald Trump watching the eclipse on the White House balcony? No eclipse glasses for him!
It was a hot, hot summer day.
In a way, the 2017 eclipse was a prelude to 2024---this time, the path of totality will be wider, extending from Mexico to Canada. The totality phase of the April 8 eclipse is expected to last twice as long as it did in 2017.
The Chicago area will experience around 94% totality on Monday, April 8, 2024. There will be over 4 minutes of darkness.
Once again, Carbondale IL will be in the path of 100% totality, like the eclipse in 2017. Millions of people will be going to some place along the path of totality---including big cities like Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo and Burlington, Vt.
There will be traffic, cell-phone disruptions, Security and National Guard are on call. Many schools are closing for the day. Motels and Airbnbs are all booked up already.
Oh yes, there will be money being made that day--t-shirts and souvenir
mugs that are temperature sensitive. Magnets, key chains, water bottles,
and more.
Things have changed since 2017. That was before the plague, the 2020 election, January 6, 2021, wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Those are the concerns of men. The cycles of the eclipses go on.
You can read more about the upcoming April 8 eclipse at Astronomy.com.
Yes, they can predict eclipses, but the weather is more uncertain. Will there be clouds along the path on April 8? We'll see....
You can watch a live stream of the eclipse at NASA.com.
Also, at EarthSky