In a sad time in history for general scientific understanding, it has been encouraging to see north Americans embrace astronomy and flock to a narrow band across the girth of the country to witness the total solar eclipse of 2017. If you were one of the lucky ones to be near the center line of the totality, you had the chance for about 2 minutes, to see the world it a completely different light.
Totality is the moment when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. During certain eclipses when the moon is on a closer orbital path to the earth and is exactly lined up, the moon will relatively cover the entire view of the sun. When this happens, the bright rays of the sun are shielded allowing us a rare view of the corona (the outer glow) and solar flares that extend beyond the surface of the sun. Also, without the bright sun, the sky turns dark and we see planets and bright stars that we would only normally see at night.
Recently, the owner of 