As the moon slowly turned the sun over New York City into a crescent — creeping toward a partial eclipse— the crowd at the American Museum of Natural History occasionally burst into premature applause.

Staring up through silver-lensed glasses made special to block direct sunlight, families and neighbours had gathered on a stone terrace outside to wonder at the magnificence of the universe. But the universe — or at least the sky above Manhattan — chose to be a bit mischievous, sporadically blocking the celestial sight with cloud cover, tricking the craned necks below that the eclipse had finally come.

It didn’t matter, though. The eclipse was being billed as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Why not get your money’s worth in, applause-wise?

“I haven’t experienced an eclipse in a very long time,” Greg Packer, a retired highway worker, told The Independent. Mr Packer, 53, rushed around excitedly, smiling and joking with strangers as he ran into them. “It’s not only nostalgic… It’s watching science and nature at work.”

Nearby, three-year-olds Carl Martin and Aiden Johnson played a game of tag while their mothers watched. Carl and Aiden have a knack for science and space, their mothers said, and like to visit the museum whenever they can. Plus the mothers don’t exactly begrudge an opportunity to witness a bit of history with their children.

“I remember [watching a solar eclipse] from my childhood,” Sharnette Johnson, 36, said. “That’s why I wanted to bring him here.”

Solar eclipse 2017 Show all 12 1 /12 Solar eclipse 2017 Solar eclipse 2017 A handout photo made available by NASA shows the Moon as it starts passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington, USA, 21 August 2017. The 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse will last a maximum of 2 minutes 43 seconds and the thin path of totality will pass through portions of 14 US states, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) EPA Solar eclipse 2017 The sun is projected on the ground glass (bottom) as photographer C.D. Olsen adjusts his replica of the Kew Photo Heliograph camera, which he will use to make a glass plate photograph of the total solar eclipse, outside the football stadium at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, U.S REUTERS Solar eclipse 2017 The sun emerges through clouds and fog cover before the solar eclipse in Depoe Bay, Oregon REUTERS Solar eclipse 2017 A boy uses solar viewing glasses as the sun emerges through fog cover before the solar eclipse in Depoe Bay, Oregon REUTERS Solar eclipse 2017 First responders and city officials man the emergency operations center in Charleston, South Carolina, on the day of the total solar eclipse AFP/Getty Images Solar eclipse 2017 A man looks through his solar viewing glasses after purchasing them to watch the total solar eclipse in New York City REUTERS Solar eclipse 2017 People are seen lining up outside the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum as a sign indicates there are no more eclipse glasses on the National Mall before an eclipse August 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. The Sun started to vanish behind the Moon as the partial phase of the so-called Great American Eclipse began Monday, with millions of eager sky-gazers soon to witness "totality" across the nation for the first time in nearly a century AFP/Getty Images Solar eclipse 2017 Solar Eclipse in Depoe Bay, Oregon, U. REUTERS Solar eclipse 2017 People watch the start of the solar eclipse and raise their hands in prayer in an eclipse viewing event led by Native American elders, at Big Summit Prairie ranch in Oregon's Ochoco National Forest near the city of Mitchell on August 21, 2017. The Sun started to vanish behind the Moon as the partial phase of the so-called Great American Eclipse began Monday, with millions of eager sky-gazers soon to witness "totality" across the nation for the first time in nearly a century AFP/Getty Images Solar eclipse 2017 People line up on a bridge as the sun emerges through fog cover before the solar eclipse in Depoe Bay, Oregon, U.S REUTERS Solar eclipse 2017 The Sun rises behind Jack Mountain ahead of the solar eclipse in Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington, U.S REUTERS Solar eclipse 2017 The sun rises over Grand Teton National Park on August 21, 2017 outside Jackson, Wyoming. Thousands of people have flocked to the Jackson and Teton National Park area for the 2017 solar eclipse which will be one of the areas that will experience a 100% eclipse Getty Images

The crowds that came to the museum, located just off of Central Park, formed a long line of eager would-be spectators early in the day. Security officers outside urged people to consider the open fields in nearby Central Park to view the solar eclipse — which would not be full in the city, as it is north of the path of totality — since the museum would be pretty packed. If they didn’t have the special glasses designed for viewing the sun, they were instructed how to make a pinpoint viewer.

Once, inside, a seemingly endless fleet of strollers jostled to make it to the terrace, cutting one another off in the race to claim precious elevator space. A line twisted through the museum’s Rose Centre for Earth and Space — a giant cube of glass that houses scale-models of the solar system’s planets, including a depiction of the sun several stories tall.

A live stream showed what those in New York couldn’t see: The view from the path of totality where a total eclipse occurred. The last time the contiguous United States was able to see a total eclipse of the sun was in 1979, according to NASA.

Monday's eclipse’s path of totality — where the moon would completely block out the sun — extended in a line from Oregon all the way west to South Carolina. But, the entirety of the US and most of North America was able to see at least a partial eclipse.

Outside, on the terrace, Norman Cook, 71, and Pamela Wheeler, 63, chatted about their lives. The two had just met on their quest to see the solar eclipse, but it turns out they’ve been neighbours all their lives. Both retired, they got to chatting and realised they’re both from the Harlem neighbourhood in Manhattan. They have a mutual acquaintance, too, but they’d have never known that before.

Mr Cook and Ms Wheeler said the good spirits shared amongst the eclipse crowd at the museum should be a more common experience. Why should it take a rare alignment of earth’s largest satellite and the sun for people to come together, even if America is in the midst of a heavily divided political climate?