Totality occurs only in a limited path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a larger surrounding region.

During this eclipse, the Moon's apparent diameter was 5.5 percent larger than average due to occurring about a day after perigee.

With a magnitude of 1.0566, the eclipse's longest duration of totality was 4 minutes and 28 seconds near the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango.

[15] Totality first passed over the Revillagigedo Islands (a federal possession of Mexico and associated with Colima state) and Islas Marías of Nayarit.

[16][17][18] A partial eclipse was visible across the remainder of the country, including 79% coverage of the solar disc in Mexico City.

Windsor, London, Toronto, and Ottawa lay just north of the path of totality, and Moncton just south of it.

[38] The partial eclipse was seen in all Central American countries, from Belize to Panama, all the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica), and northern South America (Colombia).

[44] The extension of the eclipse path within the twilight zone created what was likely the best observation window for the 12P/Pons–Brooks comet located closely to Jupiter.

Although all located east of the 180th meridian, the local time of the eclipse in Kiribati and Tokelau was Tuesday, April 9, 2024, because either UTC+13 or UTC+14 is observed in these areas.

[51][52][53] Most plainly visible to the naked eye was a very bright red point of light near the lowest portion of the Sun's disk, which on telescopic views and photographs showed as a tent-shaped angular structure.

The red and pink hues were the result of hydrogen and helium plasma being thrown up in broad arcs but never leaving the sun's atmosphere.

Attempts to observe and record shadow bands on the ground were disappointed in many areas of totality by the phenomenon not appearing in the event, perhaps having been washed out by the diffuse illumination of cloudy skies in various locations.

[62] One company that tracks Airbnb data likened the economic impact of the event to having Taylor Swift's concerts taking place simultaneously in every city along the eclipse's path.

[69] Many of those trying to drive down Interstate 93 in New Hampshire, for example, found themselves in jams lasting until at least 2 a.m. the following morning, resulting in numerous cars breaking down.

[70] Drivers and passengers spent four to six hours to pass through Franconia Notch where Interstate 93 is reduced to a single lane in each direction.

[72] In Vermont there were an estimated 60,000 additional cars and 248 inbound aircraft over the span of the eclipse weekend, with about 160,000 visitors coming into the state per Secretary of Transportation Joe Flynn.

[73] Drivers in southern Illinois leaving the region of totality to the north toward St. Louis, Missouri faced more than 80 miles of stop-and-go heavy congestion.

[68] Zookeepers, naturalists, university researchers, and citizen scientists positioned themselves to observe animal behavior during the eclipse, some with the goal of comparing results with observations made during the 1932 and 2017 total solar eclipses, and others opening new avenues of animal behavioral research.

NASA worked with ARISA Lab, LLC, to recruit thousands of citizen scientists to help record sounds and observations of animal behavior during the eclipse.

[76] Radar imaging demonstrated "noticeable decreases in typical daytime biological activities such as the movements of hawks and other soaring and insect-eating birds.

[80] Spring peepers, a type of nocturnal frog, were heard intermittently by the Purdue team in rural Indiana while the eclipse was partial, but they abruptly filled the soundscape at the moment of totality.

[81] At the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, ostriches returned to their barn and began their evening rituals, such as preening and grooming each other.

[82] At the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas, flamingos bunched together, vocalized, and began marching together, which is a bonding behavior.

[83][80] The Fort Worth Botanic Garden (FWBG) placed hundreds of butterflies in their conservatory March 1, allowed them to acclimate, and observed them during the eclipse.

[80][85] Adam Hartstone-Rose, a biology professor at North Carolina State University, hypothesized that the captive animals that did react may have been responding to the emotions of human zoo visitors.

[83] Zoologists and volunteers at Parc Safari, a zoo in Hemmingford, Quebec, noted very little change in the animals they observed there, including giraffes, lions, hyenas, wolves, lynx, llamas, alpacas, and dromedaries.

[86] Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders preemptively declared a state of emergency related to the eclipse, citing the expected increase of travel to the state which could result in transportation difficulties, such as in Fort Smith, where the police prepared for traffic congestion as hotels filled up.

[88][89] Bell County, Texas Judge David Blackburn preemptively declared a state of emergency in February 2024 due to the projected number of visitors to the area.

[90] The region surrounding Niagara Falls, Ontario, also declared a state of emergency; as an existing major tourist destination along the path of totality, it expected an influx of at least one million visitors on April 8.

Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee).