AKIPRESS.COM - The United States basked in the glory of a total eclipse on Monday, as the moon’s shadow swept from the rocky beaches of Oregon to the marshes of South Carolina, NYT reported.
Over an hour and a half, along a 70-mile-wide ribbon of land, in tiny towns like Glendo, Wyo., and metropolises like Nashville, on dirt roads and superhighways, in modest yards and grand national parks, coastal lowlands and high mountains, the world appeared to hush for a few minutes as the moon stood up to the sun, perfectly blocking its fierce light except for the corona, the halo of hot gas that surrounds it.
This was totality, an event that had not happened in the continental United States since 1979 and had not traversed such a broad swath of the country in nearly a century.
Darkness descended, the summer air caught a quick chill, Venus and some stars appeared in the near-night sky and, in Depoe Bay, Ore., one of the first places to fall under the shadow, a flock of confused sea gulls began to call out.
Even humans — who knew what was going on — were left to hunt for words to describe the spectacle.
“I’m in awe,” whispered Ibeth Arriaga, who had traveled from Los Angeles to Depoe Bay, where, despite some fog, the moon’s slip across the sun was just visible.