Port St. Joe High School students watch the solar eclipse

There will be four more solar eclipses over the next seven years, including one on April 8, 2024 with totality in states from Texas to NY. This time around, the so-called path of totality measured about 70 miles (113 kilometers) wide and cut through 14 states, including parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and SC.

The rest of North America was treated to a partial eclipse, as were Central American and the top of South America.

But it has been 38 years since the mainland United States glimpsed a total eclipse. The last one was in 1979, and that swept only a handful of northwestern states.

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, blocking light from the Sun.

For more information on their opportunities and what they expect to see, visit NASA's Solar Eclipse website. A dark blotch appears near the curve of the Earth where the moon cast its umbra.

A partial eclipse begins on the northwest coast of the United States shortly after 9 am (1600 GMT).

Despite the cloudy weather the students of Port St. Joe High School were enthusiastic and thankful they got to experience the solar eclipse. There's the beginning, when the moon starts to block the sun, followed by the maximum eclipse, when the moon is covering the largest area of the sun that it will block during that particular eclipse.

The crew participated in several studies including Vascular Echo Ultrasound, a Canadian Space Agency investigation that examines changes in blood vessels and the heart while the crew members are in space. The last view of the moon's shadow will be seen in Charleston, South Carolina at 4:10 p.m. ET. Eclipses are more likely to occur near the poles.

The entire eclipse will take a total of four hours, four minutes to make its way across the nation.

Hundreds of millions of people will fall under the shadow of the eclipse, since the whole country will be darkened - some parts more than others.About 12 million people live in the path of totality, according to the American Astronomical Society.

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