‘I get emotional thinking about it’: US and Canada ready for total solar eclipse

Cities expect huge crowds with millions gathering in 115-mile wide path of totality' for Monday's exceptionally large and long eclipse

Should the weather gods grant their blessing, a celestial show for the ages will darken the heavens over a large swathe of the US from Texas to Maine on Monday, giving tens of millions of people a grandstand view of a rare phenomenon being billed as the Great American Eclipse".

It will be another 20 years until the next total solar eclipse can be viewed anywhere in the contiguous US, lending extra incentive for many who live outside the 115-mile wide path of totality" to travel in and experience the moments of twilight, stillness and a sudden temperature drop the event will bring.