With the spectacular light show that occurred on April 8th, some United States residents are now wondering, when will the next full solar eclipse be in the United States. The last full solar eclipse in the United States was in 2017, showing how rare full eclipses are, especially in the United States. What makes them even rarer is that most solar eclipses take place over the ocean.

Solar eclipses happen when the moon passes in front of the sun. A lunar eclipse, the opposite of a solar eclipse, occurs when the moon passes into the earth’s shadow. Solar eclipses happen about 2 to 5 times each year, with 1 total solar eclipse about every 18 months, while lunar eclipses happen from 0 to 3 times each year.

Most of the excitement with this year’s total solar eclipse was because it happened in the United States and spanned across quite a few states among other locations in the world. The next time a total solar eclipse will take place in the United States will be on August 23, 2044. Due to the track record of total solar eclipses occurring rarely, this may seem quite long. According to NASA, there will only be three states in the  path of totality, including Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The next total solar eclipse to occur internationally will be on August 12, 2026. This total solar eclipse will span from Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and a small part of Portugal.

While the next total solar eclipse to occur in the United States may be underwhelming and distant for residents of the East Coast, there will still be numerous other partial eclipses, or when the moon covers part of the sun, that can be seen in the United States before that. While total solar eclipses aren’t often, it’s good to cherish the solar eclipses we can see, even if they aren’t total solar eclipses.