New Yorkers braved long lines at the weekend to get their hands on a pair of special glasses ahead of the first total eclipse to traverse the United States from coast to coast in 99 years.
Lines stretched across an entire block in Chelsea on Sunday as dozens of people waited patiently in the heat for their own safety-approved glasses for watching the eclipse.
While New York is among the states that will not see a total eclipse, about 50 percent of the sun will be obscured in the city.
New Yorkers waited in long lines on Sunday outside the Adorama Camera Shop in Chelsea to get their hands of a pair of eclipse glasses ahead of the big event on Monday
As throngs of New Yorkers lined up for their glasses, millions more Americans were busy converging on the narrow corridor stretching from Oregon to South Carolina in preparation to watch the moon blot out the midday sun Monday.
It will be the first total solar eclipse to sweep coast-to-coast across the US in 99 years.
On Monday, the deepest part of the shadow, or umbra, cast by the moon will fall over a 70-mile-wide, 2,500-mile-long ‘path of totality’ traversing 14 states.
With 200 million people within a day’s drive of the path of totality, towns and parks are bracing for monumental crowds.
It’s expected to be the most observed, most studied and most photographed eclipse ever.
Lines stretched across an entire block in Chelsea on Sunday as dozens of people waited patiently in the heat for their own safety-approved glasses
While New York is among the states that will not see a total eclipse, about 50 percent of the sun will be obscured in the city
Throngs of New Yorkers lined up for their glasses outside a camera store in Chelsea Sunday
The lunar shadow of the total solar eclipse on Monday will enter the United States near Lincoln City, Oregon at 9.05am (PST) and totality begins at 10.18am (PST). The eclipse will end in Charleston, South Carolina at 2.48pm (EST), and the lunar shadow leaves the country at 4.09pm (EST)
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is warning drivers that the Monday celestial event could cause some of the worst traffic jams in the state’s history.
Authorities are worried about the traffic impact that the eclipse will have on small towns that are not equip to be flooded with people.
Astronomers consider a full solar eclipse the grandest of cosmic spectacles. Southernmost Illinois will see the most darkness: 2 minutes and 44 seconds.
All of North America will get at least a partial eclipse.
The total eclipse of the sun is considered one of the most spell-binding phenomena in nature but it rarely occurs over a wide swath of land, let alone one of the world’s most heavily populated countries at the height of summer.
The aerial photo above shows the estimated 30,000 people who have created their own temporary community in Oregon to watch the eclipse
RV traffic sits at a standstill along a two-lane road near Madras, Oregon, as thousands flock to the small town to view the eclipse on Monday