On April 8, 2024, thousands of people gathered across North America to witness a solar eclipse where the moon passed between the Earth and the sun.
Mazatlan, Mexico was the first place to experience totality, or the brief period when the moon fully blocks the sun’s light.
Other locations along the eclipse path including parts of the US like Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Arkansas, experienced varying amounts of the sun being obscured by the moon.
In places experiencing totality, it grew dark like night for a few minutes as the moon completely blocked the sun, allowing observers to safely look at the sun’s corona without eye protection.
Cities just outside the path of totality like New York still saw up to 90% of the sun covered by the moon.
Tens of millions of Americans were able to see the eclipse along the 185 km wide path of totality stretching across northern Mexico and parts of 14 US states.
Many gathered early with special solar filters or eclipse glasses to safely observe and photograph the moon passing in front of the sun during this rare astronomical event.
