A chilly, midday darkness fell across North America on Monday as a total solar eclipse raced across the continent, thrilling those lucky enough to behold the spectacle through clear skies, the AP reports. Street lights blinked on and the planets came into view, as the moon shrouded the sun for a few minutes across the land. Dogs howled, frogs croaked, and some people wept, all part of the eclipse mania gripping Mexico, the US, and Canada. Almost everyone in North America could see at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting. "This may be the most viewed astronomical event in history," says National Air and Space Museum curator Teasel Muir-Harmony.
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 some parts of 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. Eclipse spectators at Niagara Falls State Park had to settle for darkness, but no stunning corona views. As people made their way out of the park a little more than an hour later, the sun broke through. See many of the stunning photos in our gallery.
(More
solar eclipse stories.)