SHERIDAN,
Oregon/CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - The moon blacked out the sun on Monday as
the first total solar eclipse in a century marched from the U.S. Pacific
Northwest to the Atlantic Coast, while millions of Americans looked skyward in
wonder through protective glasses, telescopes and cameras.
After weeks
of anticipation, onlookers experienced an astronomical phenomenon - two minutes
in which the moon moved directly in front of the sun to create near darkness
and cause a precipitous drop in temperature. The eclipse drew whoops and cheers
from onlookers in Depoe Bay, Oregon, near where "totality" - the shadow
created by the sun's disappearance - started.
"It
just kind of tickled you all over - it was wonderful - and I wish I could do it
again," said Stormy Shreves, 57, a fish gutter who lives in Depoe Bay.
"But I won't see something like that ever again, so I'm really glad I took
the day off work so I could experience it."
The last
time such a spectacle unfolded from one U.S. coast to the other was in 1918.
The last total eclipse seen anywhere in the United States took place in 1979.
The rare
cosmic event was expected to draw one of the largest audiences in human
history, including those watching through broadcast and social media.
Some 12
million people live in the 70-mile-wide (113-km-wide), 2,500-mile-long
(4,000-km-long) zone where the total eclipse was to appear, while hordes of
others traveled to spots along the route.
"It was
incredible," said Cheryl Laroche, 57, who with her husband, Rob, joined
other observers at Roshambo ArtFarm in Sheridan, Oregon. "It was literally
cold and dark. The light was blue."
The eclipse
first reached totality in Oregon at 10:15 a.m. PDT (1715 GMT) and began
marching slowly eastward across the country. The phenomenon will take 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.
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.
"I woke
up at 4 a.m. so I'm excited," said Madeline Rubin, 17, who drove two hours
to the stadium with others wearing T-shirts that said "I totally blacked
out."
For millions
of others outside the zone of totality, a partial eclipse will appear
throughout North America, a spectacle that attracted its own crowds.
In
Washington, D.C., hundreds of people waited in long lines outside the National
Air and Space Museum, which was distributing more than 20,000 pairs of free
viewing glasses. Residents of the nation's capital will see 81 percent of the
sun obscured at the eclipse's peak around 2:24 p.m.
ENORMOUS
AUDIENCE
Perhaps
never before have so many people had the opportunity to see a total eclipse,
said cartographer Michael Zeiler, who maintains the
www.greatamericaneclipse.com website and is a self-described "eclipse
chaser" who on Monday will mark his ninth time seeing
"totality."
Zeiler
estimated up to 7.4 million people traveled to the zone to observe the total
eclipse, which is taking place in the peak vacation month of August.
Many people
trekked to remote national forests and parks of Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming.
Those who live along the path, which cuts through a few population centers like
Kansas City, Missouri, and Nashville, Tennessee, were able to simply walk out
their homes and look up.
For those
outside the shadow's path or trapped indoors, a NASA-linked website,
eclipse.stream.live, and a companion mobile app provided a live stream filmed
from the vantage point of 50 helium-filled balloons at a height of 80,000 feet
(24,384 meters).
During a
total eclipse, the sun's disappearing act is just part of the show. The heavens
dim to a quasi-twilight and some stars and planets become visible.
The last
glimmer of light gives way to a momentary sparkle known as the "diamond
ring" effect just before the sun slips completely behind the moon, leaving
only the aura of its outer atmosphere, or corona, visible.
The corona
marks the peak phase of totality and the only stage of the eclipse safe to view
with the naked eye.
(For a
graphic on solar eclipse in 2017, click: here)
Additional
reporting by Jane Ross in Depoe Bay, Oregon, Brian Snyder in Carbondale,
Illinois, Ian Simpson in Washington, D.C., Steve Gorman in Salmon, Idaho, and
Irene Klotz in Murphy, North Carolina; Writing by Frank McGurty and Joseph Ax;
Editing by Bill Trott
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