2024 total solar eclipse: See photos as communities across US gather for rare event
Gabe Hauari, USA TODAY
Updated ·2 min read
That was fun.
The 2024 total solar eclipse took place Monday in the skies above the U.S. from southern Texas to northern Maine.
The total eclipse began in Mexico around 11:07 a.m. PDT Monday before crossing into Texas around 1:27 p.m. CDT. It ended in Maine around 3:35 p.m. EDT. Even if you were not in the path of totality and didn't see the full eclipse, many Americans saw a percentage of it.
The rare event, where the moon completely blotted out the sun's disk causing a brief period of darkness in the middle of the day, was unusually accessible to millions of people.
In the days leading up to Monday, millions of people have flocked to areas across North America that were in the eclipse's path of totality.
See photos as communities across the country witnessed the perhaps once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Cities prepare for total solar eclipse
The total solar eclipse charted a 115-mile-wide path of totality across portions of Mexico, the United States and Canada. In the U.S. alone, hundreds of cities and smaller towns in 13 states lie along the path. An estimated 31 million Americans already live on the path, while millions more tourists made travel plans – sure to snarl traffic – to catch a glimpse of the total solar eclipse.
US watches the 2024 solar eclipse
When will the next total solar eclipse happen?
It will be 20 years before there's a chance to witness a total solar eclipse in the United States again. According to NASA, after Monday's total solar eclipse, the next one viewable from the contiguous U.S. will be on Aug. 23, 2044.
Unfortunately, the 2044 total solar eclipse won't have the broad reach across the U.S. as the 2024 eclipse. The path of totality during the 2044 eclipse will only touch three states, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit involved in research, public outreach and political space advocacy. The eclipse will begin in Greenland, sweep through Canada and end around sunset in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.
But another eclipse scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 12, 2045, will trace a path of totality over California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
Contributing: Doyle Rice, Eric Lagatta, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, James Powel USA TODAY
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at [email protected].