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The world has enough to worry about. But in the United States there was only one topic on Monday: the solar eclipse, which was partial across the entire country – that is, the moon only partially obscures the sun – and total in a strip about 110 kilometers wide from Texas across the country to Maine could be seen in its full glory. The eclipse began over the Pacific. The first mainland city to witness the spectacle was the Mexican coastal town of Mazatlan. The moon’s umbra ultimately touched southeastern Canada before the eclipse ended over the North Atlantic. It occurs when the moon is exactly in front of the sun and completely obscures it.