Full Coverage: The total solar eclipse

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‍It's a sensational moment for millions of stargazers throughout the world, when the Sun's glory got fully blocked by the Moon in a "total solar eclipse" occurred at 17:15 GMT on Monday.

The eclipse then spanned from the US' west coast all the way to the east coast in about 90 minutes.

Similar coast-to-coast total eclipse has not been observed since 1918, almost a hundred years ago, marking the event once-in-a-lifetime for a lot of people.

Some of them didn't care to travel afar to watch the phenomenon from the best positions.

The path for the 2017 total solar eclipse. /CGTN America Photo

Moment of totality

For the stargazers, the moment of "totality" is what they're chasing for. The "totality" is the moment when the Sun is fully shadowed by the Moon.

As the Sun can't shine on the Earth directly, the scene may look as dark as night, even if it's actually daytime.

That's what attracted millions of people to look upward, watching the most-observed eclipse in American history.

Moment of excitement

"You're just blown away, this feeling inside you is really the definition of 'awe' and 'awesome,'" said Rich Krueger, a science professor.

Krueger was among the 100,000 people crowded to Madras, Oregon, a town of 7,000 where experts said was the best viewpoint.

"That was the most beautiful thing. I could die happy now," Samantha Gray, 20-year-old, an incoming graduate student at the University of Chicago, told Reuters.

"I am really interested in seeing this. It's pretty cool," sky-gazer Jennifer Fernandes told Xinhua at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

US president Donald Trump also watched the event from the White House, first with no protective measures, then with glasses on.

It can be harmful to look at the Sun with naked eyes, even if it's blocked by the Moon.

"Don't look," shouted one of his aides. But Trump ended up doing so, providing trolling material for people disagree with him.

Twitter account C.A.M.P trolls Trump for looking at the Sun directly. /Twitter Screenshot

Moment of tales

A solar eclipse can be hard to explain to some people, as they lack the necessary astronomic knowledge.

Tales were told about why the Sun briefly "disappears" from the sky.

One eclipse legend common to ancient cultures around the world is that of a predator chasing the Sun so to devour and extinguish its life-giving fire, as CGTN America reported.

In China, the tale is all about Tian Gou, or "the heavenly dog", who tried to swallow the Sun.

In fact, the Chinese character for "eat" can also mean "eclipse".

The character for "eat" or "eclipse". /CGTN Photo‍

The stories are usually about someone tried to shoot at the dog with arrows to scare it off.

Ancient Chinese people also saw eclipse as a sign of social changes.

Will the eclipse happened on Monday bring any change to the US?

Modern science says no but the eclipse has brought some profiting chances for the business people.

Source(s): AP ,AFP ,Reuters ,Xinhua News Agency