Achi news desk-
Across Mexico, the United States and Canada, inside a ribbon of land stretching 155 miles wide but more than 4,000 miles long, tens of millions of people craned their necks, inclined their heads to the sky and watched in wonder as day turned to night.
What many saw on Monday was a unique phenomenon: the Moon moving between the Earth and the Sun, extinguishing its light in a total solar eclipse.
The path of totality spanned the continent, starting over the warm beaches of a beach town in Mexico and darkening the skies above the terrifying waters of Niagara Falls before ending its journey on the shores of Newfoundland, Canada.
It left a sense of horror in its wake, a reminder of our planet’s place in the universe.
The eclipse was first seen around Mazatlán, Mexico, on the western shores of the country at 11:07 local time (18:07 GMT).
At first, the outer edge of the Moon appeared to touch only the Sun. Then it faded more and more until cheers erupted as everything finally went dark – except for the silvery glow of the Sun’s “corona” effect around the outline of the Moon.
A thousand miles away in Dallas, Texas, 11-year-old Ady Walton-King was waiting, weeks of pent-up excitement ready to burst.
She had learned all about the eclipse in her fifth grade class at Dallas Academy and on Monday morning she kicked off her shoes and put four pairs of eclipse glasses in her pink purse – one for herself, one for each parent and one for her a small child. sister, Abigail.
Just before it started, Ady sat down next to her father, Ryan, on a school field in downtown Dallas and looked up.
And then it happened.
It all felt slow, she said, as she described the Texas afternoon turning dark. “It looked like the Moon biting the Sun, but without the teeth marks.”
Clouds drifted in and out, occasionally blocking the eclipse from view until the Sun disappeared, nothing left but a few flashes of light around the Moon.
“I didn’t think it would be like that,” said Ady. “It was very dark. I thought it would be pitch black, but it was pretty close to pitch black.”
The temperature dropped suddenly and, just as she had been taught, the animals went quiet.
“As it started to get lighter the crickets were there, and the birds started to sing. It was really crazy,” he said. “I’m sad it’s over.”
From there, the eclipse moved on, carving its path northeast through the United States.
For some, the solar phenomenon was marked by a personal milestone, with hundreds of Americans joining one of several mass wedding events across the path of totality.
In Russellville, Arkansas, 300 couples from all over the country joined, saying “I do” just before the sky turned black. As the sky brightened, the group cut wedding cakes and danced – all part of the aptly named Total Eclipse of the Heart festival.
Following the Moon one state over, in Ellsinore, Missouri, was amateur astronomer Darcy Howard, who had driven from her home in central Arkansas to make sure bad weather didn’t obstruct her view.
She had seen several eclipses before today, two total, one year and two parts. “Each one has its own fingerprint,” he said.
Today’s total, at around 13:56 local time (18:56 GMT) brought an “eerie twilight”, Ms Howard said, with dusky colors dotted along the horizon. The corona was almost as bright as a full moon. “The sense of otherworldliness was all around,” he said.
The 70-year-old girl has loved the cosmos since childhood, since her father showed her the Big Dipper, the North Star and the Milky Way, and bought her her first telescope.
“I was hooked,” he said. “I can look through a telescope and see Jupiter… I can see Saturn. And when I see that in space, I know all is right with the world.”
By 15:13 local time (20:13 GMT), the total eclipse had plunged the midwestern state of Ohio into darkness.
In Cleveland, where eclipse watchers were mesmerized by clear skies, the Sun’s corona was clearly visible, a brilliant halo framing the Moon.
The stars came out at midday, a scene met with cheers and fireworks, New Year’s Eve in mid-April.
Not many major American cities were lucky enough to be on the entire route – but the spectacle was still stunning. In New York, hundreds of people flocked to the viewing platform of the Edge skyscraper in Manhattan to see what they could see.
They were not disappointed as the sun receded into a crescent-like stream of light that cast an unearthly pale darkness over the city.
Tourists had flocked along both sides of the border at Niagara Falls, where the eclipse path crossed from the United States into Canada.
Here, the weather presented a formidable challenge, with thick gray clouds mostly obscuring the sky from view.
But just in time for totality – to the delight of the crowd – the clouds parted to reveal the black hole Sun.
Nearby, on the Niagara City Cruise, 309 people celebrated by breaking a record – dressing up as the Sun to break the Guinness World Record for the “Largest Gathering of People Dressed as the Sun”.
The incessant movement of the celestial bodies meant that the phenomenon did not last long, and Montreal had the next opportunity to be temporarily plunged into the night.
In Montreal, 20,000 people descended on the McGill University campus for an event hosted by the school’s Trottier Space Institute.
“We had been expecting 8,000,” said program administrator Caroina Cruz-Vinaccia afterwards. The weather was perfect, clear and bright skies. At this point, the crowd immediately erupted, he said.
“I still can’t find the words about how cool this was,” he said. “We’re still coming down.”
Crowds were smaller on Newfoundland’s Fogo Island, on Canada’s east coast – one of the last places where it could be seen in its entirety.
Bethany Downery, a native of Newfoundland who works for the European Space Agency, was tuning in to the spectacular view from the Fogo Island Inn, nestled against the Atlantic Ocean.
The sky was overcast, he said, but the clouds miraculously moved in time to catch almost completely.
And with that, a day of mutual wonder and celebration came to an end. But he had left a lasting mark on many of those who had witnessed him.
In Dallas, a few thousand miles back along the trail, Ady Walton-King was making plans.
Texas won’t be in the entire path again for another 300 years, so it will have to travel for the next one in North America, in 2044.
And by then, she’ll be even more of an expert on total eclipses. “I want to be a scientist by the time that happens,” he said.
– With additional reporting by Brandon Livesay, Nada Tawfik, Nadine Yousif and Helena Humphrey
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