The Best Photos of the Great American Eclipse

Of the endless stream of Great American Eclipse photos being shared online, there are some notable gems that are going wildly viral on social media. Here’s a roundup of the amazing shots that are wowing viewers across the Web.

An Airplane Transit

Amateur potographer Kirsten Jorgensen captured this incredible once-in-a-lifetime shot from Lewiston, Idaho, of an airplane flying across the partial eclipse using a Nikon D5200 with 4 stacked filters (2 UV and 2 night). She’s now selling fine art prints of the image here.

The Progression Over Oregon

Photographer Jasman Lion Mander put together this beautiful composite photo showing the eclipse’s progression spread across the sky over Oregon. You can buy a print of the photo by messaging him on Facebook.

The Progression Over Nashville

Photographer Richard Sparkman shared this composite of the progression over Nashville, Tennessee. You can purchase prints from his website here.

The View from 45,000 Feet

Photographer Babak A. Tafreshi was soaring at 45,000 feet for National Geographic when he shot this image of totality above the clouds.

Totality with a Shooting Star

Shooting star or jet trail, I'll let you decide. #noedit The totality was incredible.

A post shared by Medi Natanzi (@thenatanzi) on

Amateur photographer Medi Natanzi managed to capture a shooting star and totality in the same shot above Madras, Oregon.

A Climber Silhouette

Adventure photographer Ted Hesser shared this incredible photo of a climber’s silhouette inside the circle of the totality. The shot took “4 days of planning and hard work.”

Totality in HDR

Photographer Dennis Sprinkle captured 13 bracketed photos during totality and stacked them to create this gorgeous HDR photo of the moon at the moment of totality. The photo shows both the Sun’s corona and the Moon’s surface being lit by Earth’s reflected light. You can purchase prints here.

Airplane and a Partial Eclipse

Solar Eclipse With Airplane

Photographer Jessica Dyer captured an airplane flying into the partial eclipse. “I […] lucked out with the amount of cloud cover,” Dyer says, “just enough that I could aim my camera at the sun without a filter, but that the eclipse was still visible.”

A Diamond in the Sky

Jackson WY 11:38am 8.21.17 #eclipse2017

A post shared by Jimmy Chin (@jimmy_chin) on

Photographer Jimmy Chin captured this incredible photo of totality from Jackson, Wyoming.

A Spotlight on the Sun

Photographer Colin MacMillan of Lawrence, Kansas, captured this image of his kids under the eclipse using a RED EPIC-W cinema camera — it’s a frame grab turned vertical. The image was slightly edited to enhance the beam from the LED flashlight and the black spot over the sun.

A Panorama of Light and Time

Photographer Kenneth Brandon shot a time-lapse using a 2000mm lens on an old Celestron 8-inch telescope. He turned his images into this beautiful panorama showing the eclipse at different moments in time before and after totality.


If you would like to suggest a popular photo to be included in this roundup, please let us know! We’ll continue to update this list.

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