Eclipse fever swept across North America on Monday, enthralling tens of millions of spectators with a unique combination of scientific curiosity, business potential, and midday revelry.
At 11:07 a.m. local time (1807 GMT), the Moon’s shadow completely obscured the Pacific coast of Mexico. It then traveled at supersonic speed across the United States and returned to the ocean over the Atlantic coast of Canada less than an hour and a half after making landfall.
Festivals, viewing parties and even mass weddings took place along the eclipse’s “path of totality,” where the Sun’s corona glowed from behind the Moon in a display that left crowds awestruck.
“It was spectacular. I had never witnessed anything like it,” said Paulina Nava, a 36-year-old resident of the beachside Mexican city of Mazatlan.
Individuals “screamed, they applauded, some were taking photos, others were kissing,” she stated. After visiting the city, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described the occasion as a “very beautiful, unforgettable day.”
Office workers poured out of towers in downtown Montreal, Canada, thousands of miles distant, to take shots with their phones clutched to their eclipse glasses.
“My heart was beating really fast,” said 26-year-old Erica Park.
Nearly 32 million Americans resided along the 115-mile (185-kilometer) wide path of totality, while another 150 million people lived within 200 miles of the strip, according to NASA, which carried a live webcast the entire time.
