Across North America Monday, skygazers and even the curious were mesmerized on Monday, August 21, as the Sun vanished behind the Moon in a rare total eclipse that swept the continent coast-to-coast for the first time in nearly a century.
Solar eclipses occur when a new moon moves into a position of direct alignment with the sun and the Earth.
The line-up is not precise enough for this to happen every month but when it does the results are spectacular.
(Agence France Presse description)
