Photos: 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse

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Great American Solar Eclipse

Total Solar Eclipse

(Image credit: muratart/Shutterstock)

Across the sky

This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse over Madras, Oregon, on Aug. 21, 2017.

(Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse over Madras, Oregon, on Aug. 21, 2017.

Diamond ring

The diamond-ring effect is seen during a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. This photo was taken from onboard a NASA Gulfstream III aircraft flying 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) over the Oregon coast.

(Image credit: NASA/Carla Thomas)

The diamond-ring effect is seen during a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. This photo was taken from onboard a NASA Gulfstream III aircraft flying 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) over the Oregon coast.

Telescope ready

Eclipse Madras

(Image credit: Aubrey Gemignani/NASA)

An eclipse party held at Madras High School in Oregon, the bight before the Great American Solar Eclipse.

Prineville, Oregon

Solar eclipse Oregon

(Image credit: Barbara Solomon)

The beginning of the eclipse, as seen from Prineville, a city in central Oregon that's along the path of totality.

Eclipse glasses were used as a filter for this photo.

Eclipse selfie

eclipse selfie Oregon

(Image credit: Dean Derek)

Dean Derek (right) snaps a selfie with Barbara Solomon (second to right), Brenda Hanson (third from right) and Mike Moen (left) in Prineville, Oregon.

The birds stopped chirping when the sun was about one-third covered, even though it was still relatively light outside, Solomon said.

When the sun was half covered, it got "cooler and darker, but in an odd way," Solomon said. "Not like a usual sunset. It's a testament to how powerful the sun is."

Sun rising

Sun behind mountain

(Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)

A view of the sun as it rises the morning of the eclipse from behind Jack Mountain in the Northern Cascades National Park, Washington.

It begins

2017 eclipse Washington

(Image credit: Joel Kowsky/NASA)

The beginning of the eclipse, as seen from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington.

ISS silhouette

Eclipse ISS 2017

(Image credit: Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty)

The International Space Station (ISS) is visible in this image of the sun from near Banner, Wyoming.

Onboard the ISS are NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson, Jack Fischer, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy; and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

ISS transit

ISS transit composite-image

(Image credit: Joel Kowsky/NASA)

A composite image made from seven frames, showing the International Space Station as it transits a partial eclipse of the sun.

Total solar eclipse

Madras Solar Eclipse

(Image credit: Aubrey Gemignani/NASA)

A total solar eclipse, as seen from Madras, Oregon, today (Aug. 21).

Laura Geggel
Laura Geggel
Managing Editor

Laura is the managing editor at Live Science. She also runs the archaeology section and the Life's Little Mysteries series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.