Darkness at noon..
NOON fell dark across a thin stretch of North America yesterday amid a rare total eclipse of the sun.
Millions of people from Mexico to Canada looked up at the sky to glimpse the phenomenon, while protecting their eyes from the sun’s intense light.
The eclipse began in the Pacific then followed a densely populated path over North America.
States such as Texas had more than four minutes of midday darkness and almost all of North America was given at least a partial eclipse.
America’s best views were in the states of Vermont and Maine.
Cheers broke out along the beach in Mexican city Mazatlan, one of the first areas in line for a total eclipse, as the moon began to pass over the sun.
Hundreds in a beachside park set up their equipment while listening to an orchestra play music from Star Wars. Luz Elena Aguillon de la O sat on the grass to take in the spectacle.
She said: “I’m happy to be here with family and friends sharing a singular, unrepeatable event that the universe and nature give us.”
In the US, a mass wedding was held in Russellville, Arkansas, with partners exchanging vows before the moon blocked out the sun to resemble what organisers called “a huge wedding ring in the sky”.
At Niagara Falls, thousands looked up as a Pink Floyd tribute band
played Dark Side of the Moon. It will be 21 years before the US sees a solar eclipse on such a scale.
However, Irish skygazers were left disappointed after the eclipse was barely visible here last night.
The celestial event was supposed to be most visible in the west, but even there many said heavy rain and cloud cover ruined the experience.
In Ireland, it began at around 7.55pm and some areas were billed
to see as much as 55% of the sun being covered.
Social media users in Ireland were quick to poke fun at the astronomical event.
One joked: “Total solar eclipse is a daily occurrence in Ireland and no big deal. It’s just the clouds instead of the moon.”
Another said: “And in typical Northern Ireland fashion, anytime something remotely related to the sky happens. Whether it be a spaceship, comet, or in this case a partial solar eclipse It’s bloody p***ing it down.”
Along with a GIF of a man out in the rain with an umbrella, another social media user said: “Going outside in Ireland to look straight at the solar eclipse. Never mind. I’ll try again in a century.”
The last time a total eclipse was visible in Ireland was in 1724 and the next one isn’t expected until 2090. Dr Niamh Shaw travelled from Ireland to the United States for the rare phenomenon.
She said: “I’ve wanted to witness a total solar eclipse all my life.
“The closest I came to one was in 1999 when Ireland experienced 91% totality.
“I was in Dublin standing in the car park outside my flat, with my makeshift pinhole projector. It was incredible to see it with my own eyes. At the moment of 91% totality, which lasted about a minute, the sunlight dimmed, the birds stopped chirping and the air became markedly cooler.
“I felt utterly inconsequential in that moment.
“It was deeply humbling and a shape-shifting moment in my perception of our place in space.”