On April 8, 2024, the maximum duration of totality anywhere along the eclipse path will be 4 minutes 28 seconds. For comparison, the maximum length of totality for the last total solar eclipse to cross the continental U.S., which occurred on Aug. 21, 2017, was just 2 minutes 40 seconds.
Indeed, some eclipse totalities last but a few seconds. And the longest eclipse totality from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 3000 is 7 minutes 29 seconds. That eclipse will occur July 16, 2186.
