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Thousands of people turned their heads skyward to watch a solar eclipse that lasted about two minutes on Monday as southern Chile and Argentina plunged into darkness.
Heavy rains had threatened to prevent stargazers in Chile from seeing the eclipse, but at the last moment the clouds parted enough to make the phenomenon partially visible.
“It was beautiful, unique. The truth is that nobody had much hope of seeing it because of the weather and the clouds, but it was unique because it cleared up just in time. It was a miracle,” an emotional Matías Tordecilla, 18, told AFP in the town of Pucón on the shores of Lake Villarrica.
“It is something that is not only seen with the eyes, but also felt with the heart,” added Tordecilla, who traveled 10 hours with his family to see the eclipse.
It was the second total eclipse for Chile in the last 18 months.
It hit at 1:00 pm (1600 GMT) when thousands of tourists and residents gathered, hoping the clouds would clear in time.
“I got goose bumps,” said Cinthia Vega, a Pucón resident.
In Argentine Patagonia, several families and foreigners had camped between the towns of Villa El Chocón and Piedra del Aguila in the hope of seeing the eclipse.
While there was no rain there, strong winds had threatened to affect visibility.
Despite the COVID-19 movement restrictions, almost 300,000 tourists had arrived in the Araucanía region about 800 kilometers south of the capital Santiago.
Dozens of amateur and professional scientists mounted telescopes on the slopes of the Villarrica volcano, one of the most active in Chile, to observe the phenomenon when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth.
The eclipse was to be visible along a 90-kilometer-wide corridor from the Pacific coast of Chile through the Andes mountain range and into Argentina.
In July 2019, some 300,000 people flocked to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, home to several observatories, to view the previous eclipse.
Great celestial events in 2021
January 3: Quadrantid meteor shower
May 6: Eta Aquarids meteor shower
August 12: Perseid meteor shower
December 4: Total solar eclipse, visible in Antarctica, South Africa, South Atlantic
December 14: Geminid meteor shower.
