(NEXSTAR) – The solar eclipse darkened skies over a large swath of the United States on Monday, April 8, inspiring crowds to break out in cheers and applause during the once-in-a-lifetime event.
The eclipse first crossed over North America in Mexico, then the United States before heading into Canada. The celestial phenomenon, caused by the moon lining up perfectly between Earth and the sun, left a roughly 115-mile-wide path of shadow.
For those in the so-called “path of totality,” where there was maximum coverage of the sun, the sky darkened as it would normally during dawn or dusk, eliciting outbursts of emotion from people who gathered to watch the event.
The total solar eclipse first entered the U.S. in Texas, where clouds blanketed much of the state, beginning just after noon, local time.
“Oh God, it’s so dark,” marveled Aiyana Brown, 14, who watched alongside her grandfather, Mesquite Mayor Daniel Aleman Jr. “I’m a huge science nerd, and this is amazing.”
The weather also cooperated at the last minute near Austin. “I will never unsee this,” said Ahmed Husseim of Austin, who had the eclipse on his calendar for a year. Husseim and his family were among hundreds who gathered on the lawn of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, with blankets, lawn chairs and country music.
Next up was Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Slivers of both Tennessee and Michigan were also in the path of totality.
This timelapse shows a view of the eclipse in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland:
The twilight resulting from the eclipse, with only the sun’s outer atmosphere or corona visible, would have been long enough for birds and other animals to fall silent, and for planets, stars and maybe even a comet to pop out.
The out-of-sync darkness lasted up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds in some places. That’s almost twice as long as it was during the U.S. coast-to-coast eclipse seven years ago, because the moon is closer to Earth. It will be another 21 years before the U.S. sees another total solar eclipse on this scale.
During the eclipse, it took just 1 hour, 40 minutes for the moon’s shadow to race more than 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) across the continent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.