From one of the U.S. to the other…millions were dazzled by the total solar eclipse on Monday.
They oohed and awed as the moon first was a blip on the edge of the sun, then slowly moved across the view until an hour later, it blotted out the sun, leaving only the “ring of fire” for a few minutes before starting its slow return to normality.
Indeed, it was a r are celestial show that attracted viewers from Europe and Australia to Texas and Arkansas. Viewers in southern Oklahoma were given a treat as well as the eclipse was visible along its “path of totality” which was about 100 miles in width.
The path of totality was visible in 15 states while it was a partial eclipse in 49 states. It was not visible in Alaska.
In Texas, the focus was on the city of Ennis where totality lasted 4 minutes and 23 seconds. Tens of thousands of visitors came to the city where there was a giant celebration of the occasion. Hundreds of thousands of visitors who came to Texas for some of the best viewing in the U.S. were threatened with clouds that briefly interrupted some of the early stages of the eclipse. But by the time the totality occurred, the clouds drifted out of the viewing path of the moon and the sun.