Total solar eclipse brings darkness to millions as it sweeps North America

In the hours after the eclipse made its escape from public view, the number of people asking "why do my eyes hurt" on Google skyrocketed.

Doctors warned that looking at the sun during the solar eclipse could be dangerous without the right protective eyewear.

Experts recommended using solar eclipse glasses, which have a special filter that blocks damaging UV rays.

Technically, a person's eyes can't hurt from staring at the sun, doctors say, since the retina doesn't have pain nerves.

However, signs of retinal damage include blurred vision, headaches, sensitivity, distortion, discoloured vision or a blind spot.

Michael Borrelli, a retired university astronomy professor, gathered with friends at Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas to view the solar eclipse.

This is Michael's third total solar eclipse viewing.

"This one I spent more time taking in the general effects. I was just sitting down and listening and looking - just taking in the beauty of it," Michael says.

"As soon as it hit totality, I could tell just by how dark it was getting," Michael tells me over the phone. "It was almost like a deep twilight."

Using a pair of binoculars, he was most excited by his magnified views of a phenomenon called solar prominances, when "reddish parts of the sun shoot out almost like a volcano", he explains.

"It's one of the most beautiful natural events I've seen in my 70 years on the planet. It's really really cool - so beautiful."

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The eclipse was welcomed with a chorus of claps and gasps when it crossed here at a nature reserve on Lake Boivin in the province of Quebec.

Amidst the excitement, one young boy exclaimed to his mother that it was "the biggest event of my life!”

Benjamin and his two daughters, Oreanne and Noralie, travelled from Montreal to this special place in nature to witness the spectacle.

“We can see the stars,” said 11-year-old Oreanne as darkness set in.

She removed her glasses when it was safe to do so, and glanced around, gasping at how dark everything had become.

Benjamin told me that “it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Noralie added, in French that it was so beautiful.

“C’est tellement beau!"

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Louis Boulet, who watched the eclipse from the city of Cornwall in eastern Canada, described it as “a mixture of cosmic beauty and terror”.

Louis, from Ottawa, said he and his father made a day of it, driving into the city and enjoying the spectacular view with a crowd of people in a local park.

"It felt like it was turning to night time at 3pm on a Monday in April," the 23-year-old said, adding that the temperature dropped so much that he needed to put on a jacket.

“People stopped moving. It got quiet, like a switch turned off," he told BBC News.

"Everyone was watching through glasses and it was absolutely beautiful."

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On "normal" days, the only people visible on the roof of the White House are ominous-looking black-clad Secret Service agents, peering through rangefinders and scopes at potential threats below.

Today, however, they had company, when a number of people - including someone in a large white chef's hat - joined them on the roof as the eclipse swept over Washington DC.

At 15:20 ET - when 90% of the sun was blocked by the moon - several dozen journalists, staffers and Secret Service agents were outside on the White House grounds, peering up into the sky through eclipse glasses.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building just next door was even more festive.

There, several dozen people - standing under an enormous Japanese flag set up for the Prime Minister's visit this week - loudly cheered as the eclipse took place, before quickly headed back inside.

Darcy Howard knows a thing or two about solar eclipses. Before today, she told the BBC she's seen five of them.

We caught up with Darcy earlier, before the eclipse happened. And we've just spoken to her again to see how it went.

She drove hundreds of miles to a friend's farm in Missouri to make sure she was in the path of totality.

"I've seen two totals, one annular, and two partials.. And each one has its own fingerprint," Darcy says after the eclipse, employing the language of an astronomer mixed with the coolness of a tattoo artist.

The 70-year-old is a member of the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society, a Nasa Partner Eclipse ambassador, and a woman who says she looks to space when she wants to know "all's right with the world".

"It's part of our life - the cycle of nature. You can see the stars. They're always there. They've been our timekeepers," she says.

The fingerprint brought by today's eclipse will leave as lasting of an impression on Darcy as each before.

It was the shadows becoming "unnatural", "the strange effects", "the colours", "the sense of other-worldliness". But it was also the people.

"We had seniors. We had working-age adults. We had teachers. We had medical workers. We had people from all walks of life who came," Darcy says.

Nearly 400 couples were married during the eclipse in Russellville, Arkansas.

"Well we heard about it and it just sounded like the coolest thing," Addie Platt told local station KHBS after her wedding.

"Not a lot of people get married under an eclipse."

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Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The next total solar eclipse that can be seen from a large part of North America won't come around until 2044.

But it's a bit of a longer wait for Brits... who can expect the next in 2090.

The rare spectacle - if clear skies prevail - is next expected in 2026, which will mainly be visible over the Arctic Ocean. It's not exactly the most populated region.

Scranton universityCopyright: Scranton university

It’s a great day for any science reporter!

My WhatsApp and email inbox filled with messages from scientists taking the opportunity to do rare experiments.

“Ionospheric physics in action!” Gwyn Griffiths in the UK messaged me.

He’s one of hundreds of amateur radio operators around the world using the eclipse to see how the Sun affects the ionosphere - an area of the upper atmosphere charged by the Sun’s energy that is crucial for long-wave radio.

Radio enthusiasts around the world are transmitting and listening for messages - sending morse code and even speaking on the airwaves. Gwyn says they can see the eclipse disrupting communications.

And in Texas, scientists with Nasa and Aberystwyth University in Wales pointed their spectrometer instruments at the Sun to see if they can observe the corona – its outer atmosphere that is normally blocked from our sight from the sheer brightness of the Sun. It'll be a while before we see their results.

And I'm still waiting to hear how what the animals are doing at Fort Worth zoo in Texas, where biologists have been watching monkeys, birds, giraffes and a whole range of creatures' weird and wonderful responses to the darkness a solar eclipse's totality brings.

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Three men who I spoke to after the eclipse rolled over Niagara Falls told me nothing can prepare you for the experience.

One of the best moments here was seeing the seagulls "go crazy" flying around wildly as the eclipse began.

One of the men said the biggest difference he noticed between this eclipse and the one in 2017 was the size of the solar flares coming off the sun.

Some of these solar flares - which are nuclear explosions - are as big as the Earth itself.

The second grade class from Washington Elementary in Union, New Jersey were outside today with their solar eclipse glasses on to watch the event.

Teachers Ms Johnson and Ms Nufrio sent us this picture of the class in the (partial) sunlight.

Washington ElementaryCopyright: Washington Elementary

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Take two best friends - Beatrice Rehe and Nada Salvino. For one it was her fourth solar eclipse, for another, her first!

Beatrice has come from Germany to experience the eclipse - she was previously at the one in Germany (1999), Turkey (2006), and the USA (2017). Her T-shirt sums up her philosophy: “Travelled miles for seconds of darkness - worth every minute!"

Beatrice, as a pro, was able to guide Nada on what to look out for: “Mostly people are in awe or go quiet. Animals go quiet - especially dogs.”

“The best bit is the diamond so look out for that!” This is when the last vestige of strong sunshine decreases to a brilliant point of light as if a big diamond.

Nada: “I want to experience it myself and it is great to be with someone who has done it. Her husband made a filter for my camera.”

I said something controversial. Weather? Not looking good.

Nada with bouncing optimism, replied: “No. It’s going to be perfect.” She smiles.

And it was.

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It was wonderful to hear those cheers and feel the excitement as totality hit Mazatlán on the coast of Sinaloa a few hours ago.

All of these people who made the effort to be there and see this total eclipse - that was a really exciting and touching moment for them.

Here in the capital, where there is a partial eclipse, it feels like we're approaching dusk. It is a slightly eerie feeling to the city.

One wonders if it is going to get darker still, or if this is as much as the residents of Mexico City will see.

But either way, there is a sense that something unique is happening in Mexico today.

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When the eclipse floated overhead here in New York City, people flooded out of office blocks and stood on the pavements, all staring up at the sky.

And while it wasn't a total eclipse, the shadow of the Moon did cast these intricate eclipse shadows across the towering buildings.

The BBC's Helena Humphrey compared the solar eclipse in Ohio to New Year's Eve, as fireworks were launched at Avon Lake.

Bethany DownerCopyright: Bethany Downer

Bethany Downer is among the few who gathered on Newfoundland's Fogo Island to watch the solar eclipse.

Downer, a Newfoundland native who serves as the European Space Agency's chief science communications officer for the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, tuned in to the spectacular view from the iconic Fogo Island Inn, situated right on the Atlantic Ocean.

She says the clouds were fully covering the skies throughout the afternoon, but miraculously cleared in time for everyone to catch near totality.

"Fogo Island is the last place in North America to observe the eclipse, so it was very special to hear everyone cheer together when the clouds briefly parted," she told the BBC.

Bethany DownerCopyright: Bethany Downer

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's satellites followed the Moon's shade from space.

You can watch the clip of the incredible sight below.

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Spectacular images of the eclipse are coming in from across from Mexico and north America, but here in the UK everything seems a bit... dull.

A largely overcast day across the United Kingdom has meant that eclipse seekers were severely disappointed - barely catching a glimpse of the sun, let alone anything more.

Britons are looking enviously across the pond, expressing their fomo (fear of missing out) on X - formerly Twitter. One user posted an image of solid grey clouds overhead, sarcastically calling it "breath taking".

All in all, the UK's reputation for its overcast skies remains firmly intact.