Huge crowds await the eclipse in North America. Clouds may spoil the view for many of them [Video]

MESQUITE, Texas — Millions of spectators along a narrow corridor stretching from Mexico to the U.S. to Canada eagerly awaited Monday’s celestial sensation — a total eclipse of the sun — even as forecasters called for clouds.

The best weather was expected at the tail end of the eclipse in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as New Brunswick and Newfoundland in Canada.

It promised to be North America’s biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.

The show got underway in the Pacific shortly before noon EDT with totality to sweep North America over the next few hours. Cheers broke out along the beach in the Mexican resort city of Mazatlan as the moon began to cover the …