Does a photo show the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse? No, that's not true: The image is from the 2012 solar eclipse taken near Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, as the original photo, found on the website Flickr, says. It does not show an image of the sun blocked by the moon during the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, on April 8, 2024. It opened:
Solar eclipse on a canyon, makes it look like we're on Mars!
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Apr 9 18:40:22 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search on Google images (archived here) returned an exact match to a photo posted on Flickr (archived here) that was taken in July 2012:
(Source: Flickr screenshot taken on Tue Apr 9 18:45:16 2024 UTC)
The caption of the photo clearly states it was taken at the Navajo Nation near Canyon de Chelly, Arizona:
Annular Visions: the 2012 Solar Eclipse
The setting sun going into full annular eclipse this past May 20th provided such a unique lifetime event to enjoy! See my first post of this event in the comments below.
This was taken at the Navajo Nation near Canyon de Chelly, AZ. Our location put us within a mere couple thousand feet of the center line for the eclipse, hard to complain about that proximity! ;-)))
Image Notes: In order to extend dynamic range three exposures were hand-blended.
The April 8, 2024, post did not specify a date for the pictured eclipse but coming as it did on the day that a total eclipse cut a path across the U.S., and on a day when scores of other, current eclipse photos were posted on social media, the implication was clear.
And although the April 8, 2024, post did not name a location, a reference to a "canyon" likely conjured up the Grand Canyon for many people. But the Grand Canyon, which is in Arizona (archived here), was far outside the "path of totality" of the April 8, 2024, eclipse -- as was all of Arizona -- as this NASA map (archived here) shows:
(Source: NASA screenshot taken on Tue Apr 9 18:49:32 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories articles on claims regarding the April 8, 2024, eclipse are here.
