The fourth and last eclipse of 2024 will come as the Moon rushes between Earth and Sun – its “new” moment – on October 2, casting its shadow 
On this occasion, as shown in one of the diagrams from the “Eclipses” pages of Astronomical Calendar 2024, the Moon is distant enough that its umbra, or total shadow, tapers to an end short of Earth’s surface. The result is an annular (ring-shaped) eclipse.
In our space view of Earth’s globe, you can see the needle-like end of the umbra; dashed lines for its continuation, the antumbra; ellipses for the antumbra’s footprint on the surface, at 10-minute intervals; and the much large outlines of the penumbra, or partial shadow, at half-hour intervals.
If you are on Earth in the narrow track of the antumbra and you look up along the axis of the shadow, you will see a ring of brilliant Sun around a Moon that will not appear black, as in a total eclipse, but as bright a blue as the surrounding sky. You won’t see a deeply darkened sky with stars, but you may have prolonged views of the edge phenomena of the eclipse as sunlight flashes on and off between the mountains on the Moon’s rim.
To be in that track, you have to be in the southern Pacific or southern Chile or Argentina. We expect to hear from those who have made their base at Easter Island, about 2,000 miles west from Chile.
Earthly affairs department
Happy 100th birthday to Jimmy Carter on October 1!
I have already expressed my admiration of him as the best president of recent times.
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