Millions watch total solar eclipse across Americas

Clouds blanketed most of Texas as the total solar eclipse began its diagonal dash across land, starting along Mexico’s mostly clear Pacific coast and aiming for Texas and 14 other US states, before exiting into the North Atlantic near Newfoundland.

In Georgetown, Texas, the skies cleared just in time to give spectators a clear view. In other spots, the eclipse played peek-a-boo with the clouds.

“We are really lucky,” said Georgetown resident Susan Robertson. “Even with the clouds it is kind of nice, because when it clears up, it is like, Wow!”

“I will never unsee this,” said Ahmed Husseim of Austin, who had the eclipse on his calendar for a year.

Just east of Dallas, the hundreds gathered at Mesquite’s downtown area cheered and whistled as the clouds parted in the final minutes before totality. As the sun finally became cloaked, the crowd grew louder, whipping off their eclipse glasses to soak in the unforgettable view of the sun’s corona, or spiky outer atmosphere, and Venus shining brilliantly off to the right.

Going into Monday’s spectacle, northern New England into Canada had the best chances of clear skies, and that didn’t change. Holly Randall, who watched from Colebrook, New Hampshire, said experiencing the eclipse was beyond her expectations.

“I didn’t expect to cry when I saw it,” she said, as tears ran down her face.

The show got underway in the Pacific before noon EDT. As the darkness of totality reached the Mexican resort city of Mazatlán, the faces of spectators were illuminated only by the screens of their cellphones.

For some, eclipse day was also their wedding day. Couples exchanged vows in a mass ceremony at a park in Trenton, Ohio.

During the full eclipse, the moon slipped right in front of the sun, entirely blocking it. The resulting twilight, with only the sun’s outer atmosphere or corona visible, was long enough for birds and other animals to fall silent, and for planets and stars to pop out.

At the Fort Worth Zoo, Adam Hartstone-Rose, a researcher from North Carolina State University, said most animals remained relatively calm. One gorilla climbed atop a pole and stood there for several seconds, likely a sign of vigilance.

The out-of-sync darkness lasted up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds. That’s almost twice as long as it was during the US coast-to-coast eclipse seven years ago because the moon was closer to Earth.

It took just 1 hour, 40 minutes for the moon’s shadow to race more than 6500 kilometres across the continent.

The path of totality — approximately 185 kilometres wide — encompassed several major cities this time, including Dallas; Indianapolis; Cleveland; Buffalo, New York; and Montreal. An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 320 kilometres.

“This may be the most viewed astronomical event in history,” said National Air and Space Museum curator Teasel Muir-Harmony, standing outside the museum in Washington, awaiting a partial eclipse.

Experts from NASA and scores of universities were posted along the route, launching research rockets and weather balloons, and conducting experiments.

AP