Solar eclipse 2017: Here's what people saw

The eclipse is one scientific event everyone can participate in. CNET employees were all eyes on Monday, whether wearing solar glasses, using handmade pinhole viewers or just watching the rare event on live streams or apps. CNET en Español reporter Claudia Cruz chose Google's Mountain View, California, campus as her viewing spot.

First published Aug. 21, 12:26 p.m. PT. 
Update, Aug. 22 at 7:46 a.m. PT.

Here's Monday's total eclipse over Weiser, Idaho, shot by CNET reporter Stephen Shankland from a dirt parking lot that cost $30 per car serviced by excitingly wobbly porta-potties.

San Francisco's seasonal fog didn't obscure the eclipse, and some would say it enhanced the view. CNET editor Wayne Cunningham took this photo from CNET's office window with an iPhone 6S, shooting through a dark strip of exposed film.

Another example of the San Francisco fog not ruining the view. CNET editor Patrick Holland shot this image through his home window.

Skywatchers of all ages got in on the excitement. Here's a young eclipse viewer in Weiser, Idaho, where CNET's Stephen Shankland set up. 

CNET contributor Eric Mack and his daughter were dazzled as the eclipse turned the sun to the Eye of Mordor over the Shirley Basin in central Wyoming. 

CNET's Claudia Cruz joined Google employees to get an eyeful of the eclipse. 

A Google employee improvises eclipse glasses using a cereal box with aluminum foil and a little hole. 

Michelle Baysan posted this shot on Twitter in response to the San Francisco Exploratorium's call for photos from eclipse watchers who used household viewers like this colander. 

The eclipse as viewed through nature's pinhole camera by CNET News editor Steven Musil on a sidewalk in Pleasanton, California. 

Another surreal view from Weiser, Idaho, courtesy of CNET's Stephen Shankland. Traffic getting into Weiser wasn't a problem, he says. Getting out is another story. 

A shot taken in Mountain View, California, by CNET's Claudia Cruz. 

CNET editor Anne Dujmovic traveled to the beach in Lincoln City, Oregon, to take in the total solar eclipse. Here, another woman watches the initial phase. 

CNET's Jim Hoffman joined an eclipse viewing gathering at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. So did kids with whimsical solar glasses. 

The solar eclipse corona, shot in Weiser, Idaho, by CNET's Stephen Shankland. 

After looking at the eclipse through the window of CNET's San Francisco office, Audience Development Manager Tania González headed outside in search of a  good spot to glimpse the eclipse without any buildings blocking her view. She took this photo with a Samsung Galaxy S8, adjusting the brightness to capture the sun hiding behind the moon on a foggy morning.

Nick Hide, CNET's global copy chief, joined a crowd gathered around the pond in Madison Square Park to catch the view. "It felt like the whole city was out on the streets, even though you could barely notice any difference in the light," he says.  

Pro photographers and amateurs alike had a big day on Monday. Here's NASA's take on the sun as it rises behind Jack Mountain in Washington's Northern Cascades National Park ahead of the solar eclipse.

The International Space Station, with its distinctive solar arrays, is the larger spec near the curve of the moon's shadow in this NASA shot. The other specs are sunspots. 

Laura Cucullu, a CNET senior editor, wasn't expecting to see the eclipse from the Bay Area, given San Francisco's notorious resident "Karl the Fog," so she was pleasantly surprised when she hit the office and saw co-workers gathered around a window passing around glasses. She snapped this shot with her phone at 10:19 a.m. Pacific, just about peak time in the area, which experienced roughly 75 percent totality. 

CNET's Jason Parker wasn't so lucky. Here's his shot from the top of the foggy hills in Oakland, California, east of San Francisco.