first people on the planet to view the totality of this eclipse as it made its way across continental north americaoment to be witnessing something that will not come around again for many years. there were some people standing there with their children sharing it with their families. a very touching moment. something that was echoed outside the zone of totality as well. as places like here in mexico city got around 75% coverage. everything turned to desk -- dusk momentarily. anchor: how about for you? you got to see that incredible moment of totality in ohio. reporter: the word people have used time and time again is awesome in the truest sense of the word. inspiring awe. we were incredibly lucky here in ohio. i think we have one of the best seats in the house here in america. you can see behind the lake erie. when we turned up this moment, there was quite a bit of cloud. but that burned away and we had a bright blue sky and then that fantastic moment of totality. a lot of people say it is difficult to find the words to describe it. for me it was mystical, mesmerizing, magical. one of the best way

extraordinary is it's just going to rip across a huge population center, which is to say north america, from mexico's with the continental united states exiting newfoundland, probably 30 to 40 million people just living under the so-called path of totality so it's gonna be a big event. >> yeah, it sounds like it and it's also a chance for scientists to learn more about our universe. nasa is going to launch rockets into the path of the eclipse. >> what makes this a unique >> research opportunity? and what do you think they're hoping to learn >> well, we want to know about the sun's corona looking at the sun with most instruments, there are some instruments which create artificial eclipses but most instruments are unable to view the corona, which is like 1 million times fainter than the sun itself. >> when the >> moon is eclipsing the sun, you see that outer edge, that crown the corona. understanding it's properties. what's in it, the chemical composition that sort of thing just tells us more and more about the most important point and star we know of which is to say, our son. so nasa will fly some high-altitude aircraft t