New York, 9 April 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Millions of people in Mexico, the US and Canada experienced a total solar eclipse on Monday.

The spectacle occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, completely obscuring the sun and leaving only a bright ring of fire visible.

Beginning over the Pacific Ocean, the core shadow stretched across northern Mexico, crossed the US from Texas north-eastwards to Maine, grazed south-east Canada and ended over the North Atlantic.

In Mexico, thousands of tourists and residents in the coastal town of Mazatlán on the Pacific Ocean watched as the solar eclipse darkened the day for a few minutes at noon. When the sky cleared again, there was applause and tears, the local television station Milenio reported.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had also flown to Mazatlán to witness the event.

The narrow corridor where the spectacle was visible included major cities such as Dallas, Indianapolis, Buffalo and Montreal, with a total population of more than 30 million people.

Eclipse chasers had travelled from far and wide to be in the path of totality and experience what US space agency NASA billed as a "cosmic masterpiece."

"Eclipses have a special power. They move people to feel a kind of reverence for the beauty of our universe," NASA chief Bill Nelson said at recent news conference.

The last total solar eclipse in the US occurred in August 2017, in Mexico in 1991 and Canada in 1979.

After Monday, North America will not see another until 2044.

Preparations had been under way for months: Parties were held in many places for crowds to watch together, at which special glasses to protect the eyes were distributed. Numerous schools in districts from which the total solar eclipse can be observed have announced that they would close.

Millions of people living elsewhere had reserved holidays. Hotels and flats in the eclipse zone were fully booked in many places and the authorities had warning of very heavy road traffic.

Scientists geared up with NASA observing, recording and measuring the solar eclipse using aeroplanes and balloons.

Photo: NASA