In 1918 — the last time the United States saw a coast-to-coast total solar eclipse — color photography was still a novelty, and many everyday photographers used the Kodak Brownie, an inexpensive camera that shot square images on rolls of film.
Nearly 100 years later, millions of people viewed a total solar eclipse, with many capturing the experience on smartphones and uploading them to the Internet using Instagram, an app that channels the spirit of making pictures with the Brownie.
We took more than 44,000 geolocated Instagram photos uploaded with the #eclipse2017 tag during the eclipse’s route over the United States and grouped them by latitude and longitude. Below, you can see the most popular, or “liked,” image per area.
Watch the eclipse cross the country
The eclipse took only 90 minutes to traverse a 3,000-mile path from Yaquina Head on Oregon’s coast to Charleston, S.C. Totality — where the moon completely blocked out the sun — lasted anywhere from a few seconds to over two minutes at various points along the path.
The wide range of the eclipse’s impact on the country’s imagination can be seen by looking at a map of where and when photos were submitted under the #eclipse2017 tag. The eclipse captured people’s attention well beyond the path of the full eclipse, such as in Southern California and the Northeast.
Note: Umbra positions are approximate.
The timeline of submissions
Even without a map, you can see the effects of the eclipse over an area. Photos uploaded to Instagram under #eclipse2017 quickly spiked when the umbra — the shadow cast by the moon completely blocking out the sun — began its trip over the Oregon coast.
After remaining relatively level over the roughly 90-minute period, with hundreds of photos being submitted per minute, submissions spiked again after the eclipse left the continental United States, with people presumably catching their breaths and uploading images to social media.
The next total solar eclipse visible in the United States will occur along a path from southern Texas to Maine in 2024, but we won’t see another coast-to-coast eclipse until 2045, when one will travel from Northern California to South Florida.
Great Falls
Cleveland
Salt Lake City
Indianapolis
Colorado Springs
Little Rock
Oklahoma City
Austin
Miami
Great Falls
Portland
Williston
Burlington
Redding
Buffalo
Cleveland
Salt Lake City
Denver
Indianapolis
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Colorado Springs
Carbondale
Wichita
Oklahoma City
Little Rock
Dallas
Jackson
Austin
Orlando
San Antonio
Tampa
Miami
Read more about the Aug. 21 eclipse:
‘We are all just mind-boggled:’ scenes from the total solar eclipse of 2017
In totality’s path, eclipse mania overshadows fears of Eclipsemageddon — for now
Everything you need to know about the Aug. 21 eclipse
The strangest, scariest eclipse myths throughout history
Here’s every total solar eclipse happening in your lifetime.
Here’s what happened to people who tried to watch a solar eclipse without special glasses
About this story
Instagram posts are retrieved via the Instagram API and only include public posts. Eclipse path and data from NASA.
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