Niagara Falls, United States: Monday’s eclipse mania gripped North America, with a spectacular sky show attracting tens of millions of people, offering rare scientific interest, commercial opportunities and daytime parties.
The moon’s shadow plunged Mexico’s Pacific coast into total darkness at 11:07 a.m. local time, then traveled across the United States at high speed and returned to the ocean on Canada’s Atlantic coast within an hour. half after landing.
Celebrations, viewing parties, and even mass weddings take place along the eclipse’s “path of public view,” where the Sun’s corona blocks the crowds from beyond the Moon.
“It’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Paulina Nava, 36, a resident of the Mexican coastal city of Mazatlan.
Thousands of miles from downtown Montreal, Canada, office workers step out of skyscrapers to take pictures with glasses on their phones.
“My heart was racing,” Erica Park, 26, said.
The total freeway is 115 miles (185 km) long and houses about 32 million Americans, with an additional 150 million living within 200 km of the strip, according to NASA, which is live streaming.
Hotels and short-term rentals across states like Texas, Arkansas, Ohio and Maine are booked months in advance.
In Ingram, Texas, people from around the world gathered to watch the eclipse at Stonehenge II Park, a replica of England’s prehistoric monument.
Janie Lynn Hunter, 57, and her husband, Charles Guillory, 60, were traveling from Floresville, Texas. The couple claimed to be “pagans” and wore Merlin’s hats.
More than 300 couples reportedly exchanged vows in a total Eclipse of the Heart mass wedding ceremony in Russellville, Arkansas.
Delta Air Lines has scheduled two special flights on the route, and most schools in the area are closed for the day.
Donald Trump, who published a campaign ad on Monday about covering his head in the sun, ignored all safety advice and looked straight ahead to the eclipse while in the White House in 2017.
This election year, President Joe Biden mocked his rival on social media, saying, “Don’t be stupid, people.”
Health officials are also urging people to use certified contact lenses to prevent permanent retinal damage.
Only people in safe public paths can remove their eye protection for a few precious moments that won’t return until the next eclipse in 2044 in much of North America.
The eclipse is also a windfall for scientists. NASA launched three rockets before, during and after the eclipse to measure changes caused by the sudden darkness of the ionosphere, the upper atmosphere critical for long-range radio communications.
It also offers a golden opportunity to study the Sun’s corona, the outer layer of its atmosphere, which is normally blocked by Earth’s light but affects everything from satellites to power grids.
“You can see an amazing structure coming out – it’s amazing,” he said, adding that the corona is “asymmetrical” as a result of the Sun’s 11-year cycle.
Amazing animal behavior, such as the crowing of a rooster when caught, is believed to herald dawn at the end of darkness.
In humans, eclipses evoke a sense of awe as we confront our small place in the cosmic order. Individuals express more “sexual” feelings toward each other as a result of shared experiences.
