Total solar eclipse to sweep across Mexico, US and Canada – live

Most of the things that animal behaviorists saw during the 2017 US total eclipse were related to circadian responses, but teams also observed a lot of anxiety-related behavior, said Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, who will be leading a team of researchers and volunteer observers on Monday at the Fort Worth zoo in Texas.

Obviously the animals that are going to their bed area, they think that evening has fallen. But the anxiety one is a bit more mysterious, we don’t know the cause. It could be the animals are aware of some kind of disparity going on. If it all of a sudden seems dark, my dog, who is very food motivated, would worry we’d forgotten a meal for him, so that might be going through some of these animals’ heads.

The most likely reason is the strangest animals of all we observed in 2017 were the people, doing crazy things, and I think that probably the animals might be having a reaction to the exuberance that the people display.

Also being watched on Monday, he said, were “some animals we think might do something interesting”, such as the Fort Worth zoo’s bonobo apes.

Along with chimpanzees, they’re our closest relatives, and are strange, fascinating and very cool apes. When bonobos have tension in the group, they also have sexual responses to that. They alleviate tension with all sorts of sexual behavior, including homosexual behavior.

Not every scientist’s attention will be focused on the skies during Monday’s solar eclipse.

Animal behaviorists at several zoos across its pathway will be watching creatures great and small for their reactions to the sudden, unexpected darkness.

The research is an extension of their observations from 2017’s most recent total eclipse in the US, when usually sedentary tortoises started rutting, frantic giraffes ran around aimlessly, and siamang gibbons embarked on an abrupt and tumultuous chorus of screams and barks.

A team of researchers and volunteer observers on Monday at the Fort Worth zoo in Texas will watch many of the species they did seven years ago when the eclipse passed over Riverbanks zoo in Columbia, South Carolina, the results of which were published in a 2020 paper co-authored by Adam Hartstone-Rose for the National Library of Medicine.

As well as the amorous gopher tortoises, they recorded a male gorilla charging a glass enclosure, flamingos that clustered in an unusually tight bunch, and lorikeets that began chirping loudly and swooping en masse.

The solar eclipse will make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast at 11:07am PT.

As the moon’s shadow travels northeast, it will cross into Texas at 1:27 CT and sweep across more than a dozen US states, ending in Maine at 3:35pm ET and into Canada. The eclipse will exit continental North America from Newfoundland at 5:16pm NT.

Here are some times for the path of totality:

Dallas, Texas totality: 1:40pm to 1:44pm CDT

Idabel, Oklahoma totality: 1:45pm to 1:49pm CT

Little Rock, Arkansas totality: 1:51pm to 2:00pm CDT

Poplar Bluff, Missouri totality: 1:56pm to 2:00pm CT

Carbondale, Illinois totality: 1:59pm to 2:03pm CT

Evansville, Indiana totality: 2:02pm to 2:05pm CDT

Cleveland, Ohio totality: 3:13pm to 3:17pm ET

Erie, Pennsylvania totality: 3:16pm to 3:20pm ET

Niagara Falls, New York totality: 3:18pm to 3:22pm ET

Burlington, Vermont totality: 3:26pm to 3:29pm ET

Lancaster, New Hampshire totality: 3:27pm to 3:30pm ET

Caribou, Maine totality: 3:32pm to 3:34pm ET

First contact is when the moon’s outer edge first appears to touch the sun, creating the beginnings of a partial eclipse and a crescent sun reducing in size until totality (second contact).

In the moments before totality, look for (in order) shadow bands, Baily’s Beads and a diamond ring, three of the most memorable stages of a total eclipse.

Shadow bands, says Nasa, are rapidly moving, long, dark bands separated by white spaces that can be seen on the sides of buildings or the ground just before totality; Baily’s Beads are short-lived light rays from the sun streaming through the valleys along the moon’s horizon, and give way to the diamond ring effect, the final, single spot of bright light immediately before the end of any direct sunlight.

The sun’s corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere, can only be seen during the total part of the eclipse, then, following totality, the same effects come in reverse. For most locations, the partial eclipse phase lasts from 70 to 80 minutes, according to Nasa.

A total solar eclipse is a “mystical, magical experience”, the deputy head of Nasa has said, adding that this one offers the space agency the chance to learn much more about the sun, Earth and moon.

Pam Melroy, a veteran astronaut who holds degrees in astronomy and planetary sciences, was just on CNN explaining how Nasa will be tracking today’s eclipse across Mexico, the US and Canada, and harnessing an army of citizen scientists to do so.

It gives us the opportunity not just to leverage all the great scientific capabilities that we have in the US, using all kinds of equipment, aircraft, kites, balloons, sounding rockets, all flying up into the atmosphere to observe.

But in addition we have trained regular citizens, not professional scientists, to use solar telescopes. And we have an app on your phone. We’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people taking pictures, and by pulling all that data together, we think we’re going to understand the shape of the sun down to within a few kilometers.

Melroy, one of only two women to command a space shuttle mission, said there was “something very mysterious” about a total solar eclipse.

When literally day turns to night, animals start to behave differently, we’re seeing changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s a mystical, mysterious experience. And I love the thought that millions of Americans will stand together today, looking up into the sky wearing their glasses. It is amazing.

From eclipse donuts to deep-state lunacy, the weeks-long social media buildup to a solar eclipse is birthing memes, marketing gimmicks and more than a few conspiracy theories.

As many prepare for the celestial event in person, content creators have also scrambled to commemorate the big day. Zach Sweat, managing editor of the internet social history website Know Your Meme, said:

Most of the memes are jokes about people staring at the sun and going blind from not using proper protection, as well as jokes about places like Canada being almost entirely exempt from the path of the event.

Michael Zeiler, an eclipse cartographer and the man behind GreatAmericanEclipse.com, has provided a handy Emoji Map that depicts the path of totality – where you can see the total eclipse – through a series of emojis. A smiley face hovering over a city means that it will get the best view. Sleepy and angry faces, not so much.

Staring directly at the sun during a solar eclipse (or at any other time) can lead to permanent eye damage.

Don’t do what Donald Trump did in 2017.

To look at the eclipse directly, you must have special eclipse glasses. Regular sunglasses, frosted or darkened glass, or any other method lacking the necessary eye protection, just won’t cut it.

Nasa’s must-read eclipse safety guide on the subject says:

Viewing any part of the bright sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury.

Many stores, businesses, schools and libraries are still offering glasses free or at low cost, but you need to make sure they are safety rated. The American Astronomical Society warned last month that unsafe fakes and counterfeits were circulating, and has published a handy list of suppliers of safe solar viewers and filters (certified ISO 12312-2 compliant).

If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can make a box pinhole projector following the steps in this video, courtesy of Nasa’s Goddard space flight center.

An even simpler method is using anything with a small hole, such as a kitchen colander, to project an image on to the ground. And remember that many places across the entire country, such as science centers and zoos, will be hosting special eclipse events so you can watch the action safely.

If you live anywhere in the path of totality, or can travel to it, congratulations, you have a front-row seat.

Just remember: you need eclipse glasses (more on that in a minute) to look up at all times other than the few minutes of full eclipse.

But everyone in North America outside the path should be able to see at least a partial eclipse of varying percentages, and Nasa will be livestreaming the entire event here.

And here is Nasa’s Eclipse Explorer, where you can enter any US address or zip code to find out what will be visible from that location.

You can find Nasa’s guide to the stages of a total solar eclipse here.

Millions of people were gathering across 15 states, and in Mexico and Canada, on Monday in anticipation of this afternoon’s total solar eclipse that is expected to deliver a dazzling celestial show.

Undeterred by gloomy forecasts of low cloud cover and rain spoiling their view, hordes assembled in the US from Texas to Maine, clutching safety glasses and cameras with solar filters, in readiness for the rare spectacle.

Travelers were up early on Monday to stake a good spot for watching the eclipse beneath the 115-mile wide path of totality. In Maine, where clear skies are expected to offer some of the best views, authorities reported heavy traffic long before daylight.

Forecasters had gloomier news for many other parts of the country, although predicted conditions have been generally been trending better in recent days. Clouds are still expected across much of the eclipse route, with severe weather including thunderstorms and hail for parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana later in the day.

“Northern New England remains to be the region where cloud cover will likely be minimized along the path of totality this afternoon,” the National Weather Service said in a Monday morning bulletin.

Other locations will have a fair chance of cloud covers at various levels, although locations across Arkansas to the Midwest could see breaks in the clouds or high thin clouds during the time of totality.

Total solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, blocking the sun’s face completely, and causing the bright sky to darken to twilight in just seconds. The track of the moon’s shadow is called the path of totality.

The most recent total solar eclipse in the US was in 2017, but an interval of only seven years is unusual. The previous one before that took place in 1979, and the next one visible in the contiguous US will not be until August 2044. Only 16 other total solar eclipses have occurred over at least a part of the lower 48 states in the last 155 years.

An estimated 31.6 million people, almost three times as many as in 2017, live in the path of totality – which is longer, and also wider, than almost every other total eclipse before it, because the moon is closer to Earth and casts a broader shadow.

The time of totality in any given location is also longer. Seven years ago, the longest duration anywhere was two minutes and 42 seconds. On Monday, it will be four minutes and 28 seconds in Torreón, Mexico, while almost every place along the path can expect between three and a half to four minutes of totality.

Hello and welcome fellow eclipse watchers to the Guardian’s coverage of Monday’s total solar eclipse, which will traverse across the Pacific Ocean, through Mexico, the US and Canada, and end over the Atlantic Ocean.

The total solar eclipse will be visible along a “path of totality” that will measure about 115 miles (185km) wide and extend across the continent.

The first spot in North America that will experience totality is on Mexico’s Pacific coast at about 11:07am PT. The eclipse will sweep across 15 states in the US in a north-east direction, from Texas to Maine, for roughly an hour, beginning at 1.30pm CT and ending at about 3.35pm ET. An estimated 31.6 million people live in the path of totality.

Along that path, the moon will fully obscure the sun, and block its face completely, causing the bright sky to darken to twilight in just seconds. Weather permitting, people in the path will see the sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere, which is otherwise usually obscured by the bright face of the sun.

North America won’t see another coast-to-coast total solar eclipse for 21 years, prompting millions of people across the country to travel to witness the celestial event.