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Elsewhere, NSO scientists and CU Boulder students prepared experiments to study the corona, the Sun’s faint outer atmosphere that becomes visible during totality. One of those experiments, SuperKT, led by NSO scientist Kevin Reardon, used a spectrograph to obtain broadband spectra of coronal electrons to derive their temperatures and velocities. One setup was deployed in Mazatlán, Mexico, by NSO scientists Sanjay Gosain and Gianna Cauzzi, along with APS graduate student Kenny Kenny; and another was run in Dallas by a group of CU Boulder students.

Overcast skies threatened the observations in Texas, so Reardon’s team drove to Carbondale, IL. The team included two APS Hale Graduate Fellows, Sarah Bruce and Ayla Weitz, who ran the livestream equipment. Several CU Boulder undergraduates were also essential to the experiment: Carina McCartney (aerospace engineering), worked on telescope control software; Sang Lapinee (astronomy and geology) helped with telescope setups and alignment; and Rosilio Roman (computer science) developed camera control software. The team enjoyed outreach opportunities with the public; and for McCartney, Lapinee and Roman, it was their first view of a total solar eclipse.

Additionally, NSO supported the Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse () experiment, led by Southwest Research Institute, and modeled after NSO-led CATE 2017. The experiment supplied 35 groups of amateur astronomers along the path with identical telescope setups with the goal to produce a 60-minute film that allows access to the solar corona on timescales greater than possible from one site.

Finally, atop Maui’s Haleakala-, the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the world’s most powerful solar telescope, operated by NSO, also aimed at the eclipse—even if just partial from Hawaii. Its measurements were done in coordination with other experiments on the ground, and in space—highlighting a golden era for solar physics research.

From Texas to Hawaii, Mexico to Illinois, along the path and beyond, everyone’s eclipse experience was unique—yet all were united by a common curiosity and desire to see a world beyond our own.