Yesterday, millions of Americans looked skyward in wonder through protective glasses, telescopes and cameras as the moon blacked out the sun in Oregon
Yesterday, millions of Americans looked skyward in wonder through protective glasses, telescopes and cameras as the moon blacked out the sun in Oregon, the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in the United States. After weeks of anticipation, the sight of the moon’s silhouette passing directly in front of the sun, blotting out all but a halo-like solar corona and causing a precipitous drop in temperature, drew whoops and cheers from onlookers.
The rare cosmic event was expected to draw one of the largest audiences in human history, including those watching through broadcast and social media to see the solar eclipse happen. People used protective glasses to see the rare phenomenon. Some 12 million people who live in the 70-mile-wide (113-km-wide), 2,500-mile-long (4,000-km-long) zone where the total solar eclipse appeared, while hordes of others traveled to spots along the route.
Nancy Conway, 57, an elementary school principal, said she and her family made the drive to Charleston from Lynn, Massachusetts.
“Twenty hours, three drivers, four adults, two 6-year-old twins,” Conway said as she sat in a lawn chair facing the harbor. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
A number of towns within the total eclipse’s path set up viewing parties. At the Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale, Illinois, the 15,000-seat football stadium was sold out for Monday.
The solar eclipse first reached totality in Oregon at 10:15 a.m. PDT (1715 GMT) and began marching slowly eastward across the country. The phenomenon took its final bow at 2:49 p.m. EDT (1849 GMT) near Charleston, South Carolina, where eclipse gazers gathered atop the harbor’s sea wall.
The last time such a spectacle unfolded from the Pacific to the Atlantic was in 1918. The last total solar eclipse seen anywhere in the United States took place in 1979.
