‏On Aug. 21, 2017, skies darkened from Oregon to South Carolina in the first total solar eclipse visible from coast to coast across the United States in 99 years.

The moon’s dark shadow swept across the United States in a total solar eclipse today, thrilling millions of spectators with a Great American Solar Eclipse, from sea to shining sea.

The eclipse Monday (Aug. 21) was the first in nearly a century to cast the moon’s shadow on the entire contiguous United States (the last one was in 1918). The moon’s shadow crossed 14 states, from Oregon to South Carolina, along a path that is home to 12.2 million people, NASA officials said. Another 200 million Americans were within a day’s drive of totality, with tourists also flying in from other states and countries.

The question on everyone’s mind was the weather, no more so than here, where more than 50,000 people were expected to pack this college town (population 30,000) to witness the event.

Southern Illinois University postponed classes (today was originally the first day of school) and sold out its 15,000-seat Saluki Stadium to eclipse chasers hoping to experience 2 minutes and 38 seconds of darkness as the moon’s shadow crossed the country.
Twenty minutes before totality, a huge cloud passed over the partially eclipsed sun, threatening to block views of the main event. As the time of totality — 1:20 p.m. CDT (2:20 p.m. EDT; 1820 GMT) — approached, spectactors broke out in chants of “No clouds!” and “Move That Cloud!” And just as totality occured, a break in the clouds let the eclipse burst through. The crowd went wild.
Mayo said he saw totality “for about 10 wonderful seconds” before the clouds rolled back in. On the stadium’s field, elated scientists reported a magnificent observation of the “diamond ring effect” — the brief flashes before and after totality that give the sun a ring-like look.

“We saw the diamond ring at the start, we saw the diamond ring at the end,” said Bob Baer, co-chairman of SIU’s eclipse-planning team. “Those are the two best parts! The diamond rings were awesome!”

A rare event Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes exactly between the Earth and sun, covering the entire face of the star for a few brief minutes before the moon continues along its monthly orbit around our planet. When that cosmic alignment occurs, a wonder of nature befalls the Earth.

During a total solar eclipse, day turns to night. Stars and planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter in today’s case) become visible, the temperature drops, animals can get confused and act strangely and eclipse chasers experience an unmistakably profound experience.

A national eclipse

A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth every 18 months, but it’s rare for one to be visible to so many people across such a populated swath of the planet. The coast-to-coast nature won the eclipse the nickname “The Great American Solar Eclipse” since the entire country would experience a partial eclipse in addition to those within the 70-mile-wide (113 km) path of totality across the country.

Anticipation for the solar eclipse reached a fever pitch in the days leading up to the big event. NASA and the AAS repeatedly issued warnings for safe solar viewings throughout the summer. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued traffic warnings and guidelines for states within totality. NOAA and the National Weather Service created a special weather-tracking website so eclipse chasers could track cloud-cover forecasts.