Millions of people in North America, the United States included, on Monday watched a partial and total solar eclipse.
The moon blocked the sun for a few minutes, creating a spectacular scene for people in Mexico, some towns and cities in the United States including Cleveland, Texas, Buffalo and others.
Calvin Masilela, a professor of Geography and Regional Planning at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said, “What we are used to viewing is a partial solar eclipse but this one is unusual. The eclipse path started in the South Pacific Ocean, and passed through Mexico, the United States, all the way to Canada.
Partial solar eclipse in Washington
“Why is the eclipse unique? It’s because most solar eclipses are partial, that is, the sun is part hidden by the moon. Total solar eclipses mean that the moon shadow totally covers the sun. This is rare because the moon’s shadow is not big enough normally and there is a few places that on the earth that this can happen. North America generally just happened to fall on this unique path."
Partial solar eclipse in Washington DC
The partial and total solar eclipses were visible to people who were on either on the path of the eclipses or a narrow band, about 185 kilometers or 115 miles of the path.
He said the duration of the eclipse in some places was “somewhere about four minutes and a few seconds. And of course that depended again on your position on the exact path itself. And for those that pay attention for this, I believe the longest total solar eclipse was somewhere around June 1955 which lasted for almost 7 minutes and eight seconds.”
The next total solar eclipse will be in 2044.
Hundreds of people thronged the Washington Mall on Monday to watch the partial solar eclipse. Ms. Blondie Ndebele, a Zimbabwean affiliated to a non-governmental organization in the city, said the event was “wonderful to watch.”
Thousands watch solar eclipse in Washington
Ms. Ndebele noted that “I came here knowing well that the next eclipse will be in 2044 and as a person who once witnessed a similar event when I was a small girl in Zimbabwe, this was a spectacular solar eclipse for me and it’s was so amazing to see so many people cheering when the moon went past the sun and thus casting a dark shadow over earth.
“In Washington DC it was not a full eclipse but something worth watching. I will do it again in 2044,” said Ms. Ndebele, who looked at the sun many times using specially-crafted solar eclipse glasses.
“We have been warned that it is not proper to watch it using our naked eyes. These sunglasses made the whole event look close to earth,” she said, before chatting to her new friends, who had come all the way to watch the partial solar eclipse.
Partial solar eclipse in Washington
But for Leon, it was all designed to take care of a young man afflicted with mental challenges.
“We planned for almost three months to come here to watch this spectacular event. To some of us it has some spiritual meaning. It’s very good for this young man who needs to refresh and see something different from this boring everyday life,” he said.
Ice-cream and food outlets made brisk business at the Washington Mall where hundreds of people watched the partial solar eclipse.