Millions of Americans experienced a rare astronomical phenomenon on Monday – a total solar eclipse. After weeks of anticipation, people gathered along the 70-mile-wide path of the eclipse across the US to watch – with protective glasses, telescopes and cameras.
As the moon cast a deep shadow on the sun, leaving nothing visible but a faint glimmer in some cases, many cities fell under complete darkness as temperatures dropped. The most spectacular part (video above) was the crown or the halo-like solar corona.
The solar eclipse took a little over an hour and a half to cross 12 states, and the shadow moved across the continent at an average speed of 1,700 miles an hour. The internet has been flooded with pictures and videos capturing the historic moment. Highlights below:
This video captures the total solar eclipse from the shores of Palisades Reservoir, Idaho.
To combat the cloud cover over the eclipse, some enthusiasts chartered a flight to watch the spectacle 38,000 feet above the ground:
This video captured the shadow of the eclipse across North America.
Here is the total solar eclipse as seen from Idaho Falls.
In a video by NASA (below), captured at 1,500 frames per second with a high-speed camera, the International Space Station is seen as a silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly five miles per second during a partial solar eclipse.
This stunning video, created from images taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), shows the sun first in visible light, then in extreme ultraviolet light.
NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) captured images of the moon’s shadow crossing over North America.
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