Buffalo Stamp Club commemorates 2024 solar eclipse

Postmark Pursuit by Molly Goad

The Buffalo Stamp Club has unveiled a commemorative pictorial postmark to mark the 2024 solar eclipse, highlighting Buffalo’s position within the path of totality.

On April 8, the total solar eclipse cast its shadow across various regions of the United States and southern Canada. This celestial phenomenon occurs when the moon perfectly aligns between the Earth and the sun, completely obscuring the sun’s rays.

The eclipse’s path traversed through central Mexico; parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and southern Canada; before exiting North America via the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.

Almost seven years have elapsed since the last cross-country solar eclipse in the United States. This year’s spectacle was expected to surpass its predecessor in both scale and duration.

Spanning approximately 115 miles in width, the 2024 path of totality offers a broader trajectory compared to the 2017 eclipse, which ranged from about 62 to 71 miles wide.

According to NASA, this wider path means an estimated 31.6 million people found themselves within the totality zone this year, compared to 12 million in 2017.

Moreover, totality was projected to last longer than in 2017, with the longest duration predicted to be 4 minutes and 28 seconds, located approximately 25 minutes northwest of Torreon, Mexico, surpassing the previous record of 2 minutes and 42 seconds observed in Carbondale, Ill.

In addition to this remarkable event, the postmark also serves as the cancellation mark for the Buffalo Stamp Club’s 2024 Bufpex stamp show held March 23-24.

To obtain the postmark, address your request to:

BUFPEX Station, Postmaster, 1200 William St., Room 200, Buffalo, NY 14240-9998, March 23.

Connect with Linn’s Stamp News: 

    Sign up for our newsletter
    Like us on Facebook
    Follow us on Twitter