| After crossing through 14 states, the solar eclipse has left the country. The celestial event awed millions of people Monday along the 67-mile-wide path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina. Here's a roundup of the day's events with the best content from the USA TODAY Network: |
| Millions of people crowded cities, towns, parks |
| Astronomers-for-a-day gasped and cheered as the much-ballyhooed Great American Eclipse rolled across the nation. Millions more took a break from work to peer at the partial eclipse visible everywhere in the U.S. Weather posed few problems for sky gazers, although it rained in parts of Missouri and was cloudy in much of South Carolina as the partial eclipse grew closer to totality. The skies above Charleston, S.C., the last major city in the path of totality, opened up just enough for stellar views of the eclipse , even as a thunderstorm moved in from the north, providing wild bolts of lightning. |
| Everyone paused for a few minutes and stared at the sky |
| A summer of shock - threats of nuclear war from North Korea, neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville - was graced by a few hours of awe, as Americans marveled Monday at their first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse since Woodrow Wilson was in the White House. Even seasoned astronomers were stunned. "The sun disappearing in midday? The stars coming out? Truly special,'' said Steve White, the director of Fresno State University's Downing Planetarium, who watched in Salem, Ore. A nation increasingly separated by politics was unified by a natural event that started in the blue state of Oregon and ended about 90 minutes later in red South Carolina. |
| Eclipse-chasers got a special viewing party in the sky |
| An Alaskan Air charter flight provided astronomy enthusiasts, eclipse-chasers, a NASA astronaut, social media contest winners and other guests a unique and early view of the total solar eclipse by heading out over the Pacific Ocean. Yelps of "There it is!" "Wow!" "Oh my goodness!" and "Thank goodness this worked!" filled the cabin as the flight hit the coordinates that astronomers and pilots so carefully plotted out beforehand. Astronomers had worked closely with Alaska Airlines pilots for months to chart the best flight path to catch the eclipse and found that, for a variety of reasons, heading out over the ocean would provide the ideal views. |
| Check out more nationwide coverage at: solareclipse.usatoday.com. |
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| This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY. |
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