On Monday August 21, 2017, the U.S. witnessed its first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse since 1918. Although the total eclipse took place on a latitude further north–on a path consisting of counties that mostly voted for Donald Trump–all of North America was able to witness at least a partial eclipse. Having read the highly necessary and wildly informative letter about eclipse-viewing safety and having filled out the mandatory and well-managed permission slips, most of the students of the HGM trotted out onto the field to view the eclipse either with proper viewing glasses or through Mr. Maine's telescope-with a high enough magnification to display sun spots. Ms. Gardner followed up the outdoor viewing by playing Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon during her AP Literature lecture and Ms. Underwood did some intense research on Pinterest and brought her students "eclipse cookies": oreos with the top removed to "eclipse" the filling. Although the peak of the eclipse took place at 10:22AM, during Nutrition, the HGM faculty let students witness the beginning and end of the moon's transit during class time.
Los Angeles was fortunate to have opportune weather for viewing the eclipse and although some regions of the country had cloudy weather, most Americans were able to witness a bizarrely beautiful and rare celestial alignment.
Image: Mark Wilson-Getty Images North America