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On Monday, a total solar eclipse electrified the US. Millions of people moved to get into the path of darkness, putting on their protective glasses to witness the sun's disc being completely obscured by the moon for about 2.5 minutes.
The last time the US experienced a solar eclipse was 1979. However, this was the first total eclipse to track from coast to coast since 1918, and one exclusively visible in the US.
The spectacle first began in Oregon at 10:16 local time (1716 GMT). It then raced on to Idaho, Wyoming, and all the way down to South Carolina.
Small towns along the path were inundated with visitors. So were the National Parks.
Charleston, South Carolina, an Atlantic coastal city with cobblestone streets and elegant antebellum mansions, was the place tasked with saying goodbye to the eclipse.
For locals and those who have come from far away, it was a big deal. As early as last Friday, it has been bustling with people.
"We're very excited," said Brandy Mullins, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother who moved to Charleston six weeks ago with her family.
Nick Willder, 59, and his wife, Sarah Boylan, 60, of Nottingham, England, had planned their two-week vacation through the southern US to end in Charleston in time for the eclipse. It was their third try to see a total eclipse: Earlier attempts in England and China, Willder said, were both rained out.
The eclipse attracted a vast array of viewers, including US President Donald Trump and his Cabinet members.
He watched the eclipse from the White House alongside First Lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, while Vice President Mike Pence watched with students from a Washington-area school.
The next total solar eclipse on US soil is scheduled to occur on 8 April 2024, but it will not stretch from coast to coast. Instead, that eclipse will stretch from Texas to Maine.
Amateur astronomers and partygoers alike were drawn to "the path of totality", the only place from which a total eclipse could be seen. That path, roughly 110 kilometers wide, passed over the homes of about 12 million people, with millions more pouring in to the area to watch.
In ancient times, eclipses were often feared as harbingers of doom that signalled poor harvests or the death of a god, but modern-day spectators' only concerns seemed to be whether they could find a parking space or a cheap hotel room!
According to China Central Television, hotels and airlines benefitted the most from the eclipse. Hotel booking rates were up 60 percent in some areas, while the manufacturers of protective eyewear and telescopes also reaped a windfall.
An eclipse is a kind of celestial event in which the moon passes between the sun and Earth, and blocks all or part of the sun for up to about three hours, from beginning to end, as viewed from a given location.
For this eclipse, the longest period when the moon completely blocked the sun from any given location along the path was about 2.5 minutes.
The moon travels between the Earth and the sun about once a month. But because its orbit is tilted slightly, compared to the Earth's orbit around the sun, the moon is usually too high or too low in the sky to get in the way of the sun's light.
It's only once every 18 months that it drifts into a perfect line-up and blocks some of the sun's light from reaching us － creating a total eclipse on Earth.
However, a total eclipse can only be seen if you are standing at the center of the moon's shadow. As the shadow zips across our planet's surface, its path covers less than one percent of the Earth. So it is far more likely to pass over uninhabited regions － such as the vast oceans － making a total eclipse notoriously difficult to catch!
You never want to look directly at the sun without appropriate protection except during totality, as doing so can lead to permanent blurry vision and blindness.
There are a number of ways to safely view a solar eclipse, including wearing protective eyewear and indirectly viewing the sun's image through the use of a pinhole projector or similar device.
Sources: China Daily, BBC, NASA
Editors: Jiao Jie, Zheng Peihan (intern)
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