2017 Solar Eclipse Videos to Get You Excited About the 2024 Solar Eclipse

Do not look directly at the sun. Ever. Ever means ever, even if it’s during a solar eclipse. You don’t look directly at the sun any other time, do you? You most likely don’t because you’re reading this, and if you can read this, you most likely have eyes that are still functioning to the best of their abilities. Staring at the sun, even during an eclipse, will screw that up.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with looking at multiple videos of a solar eclipse, however. You will not damage your eyes if you’re viewing videos of people looking directly into a solar eclipse.

Here are eight of the best videos from the 2017 solar eclipse. Once again, please do not look directly at the sun. Ever. Eye damage is real.

Regardless of your politics, please do not stare directly at an eclipse. We'll get to more on the why later, but please, just don't do it. We get it, it's alluring to look directly at the sun during an extremely rare event, but there's a reason there are special viewing glasses made explicitly for eclipses. If you have the glasses, just keep them on. You don't have to believe us, just NASA. Everyone agrees on NASA, right?

Before we get to the really good stuff, you may need a visual explainer of how the solar eclipses' path determined where and why millions of people traveled to specific American cities. They've put together a helpful 2024 video too. If this kind of thing interests you, you'll want to book ahead for the next solar eclipse in America. It's in 2044.

You may be wondering why some cities have issued disaster declarations in advance of the eclipse. Once you understand the path, you'll understand.

Not everyone cares about the sun and the moon and the very rare times they not collide (not literally, we're not in danger). NPR put together a lovely compilation of Americans around the country experiencing pure joy in witnessing the 2017 solar eclipse. In an extremely divisive election year, it's phenomena like this that has the potential to get everyone on the same page for at least a few minutes.

It's kinda great to see science nerds get super hyped about a solar eclipse. This compilation from CBS News has normal folks like you and I quite happy to wear the special glasses and look up, but it also has a few scientists completely elated, like they themselves won the big game. For some parts of the country the eclipse was almost blocked by clouds and when it wasn't, boy howdy, these folks were psyched! Related, if you still don't have eclipse glasses, you can make a pinhole projector.

If you live in a major metropolitan city, you're probably not flying your drone to get some good footage of the eclipse, most likely because it's illegal where you live. In the not-at-all metropolis of Casper, Wyoming a drone pilot was able to shoot some extremely rare footage. Is there a better use of a drone? If you pay attention to the news in any way, the answer is no. This is the best way to utilize a drone.

Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was not meant to be a power ballad about an actual eclipse, but it turned into that in 2017. The chart topping single, the Grammy nominated song, the six million seller, is a vampire love song. Songwriter Jim Steinman included the song in the 1997 musical Dance of the Vampires. In the show's Playbill he said, "If anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. It's all about the darkness."

Who doesn't love vampire/eclipse love?

Bonnie Tyler isn't the only singer with an anthem applicable for solar eclipse. The Prince of Darkness has a career's worth of excellent music appropriate for when the sun is hidden, but none more so applicable than "Bark at the Moon." His performance of the 1983 song on August 21, 2017 started when it was sunny, peaked at the height of the eclipse, and wrapped up when it was sunny again. It could not have been better timed. Kudos to the organizers of the Moonstock festival in Carterville, Il.

The good thing about solar eclipse educational videos is they aren't tied to specific solar eclipse. The science is the science, and once you learn it and obtain it, you'll be able to appreciate it more, too. But if you just need a talking point to share in conversation, just fast forward to the 2:50 mark. The helpful graphic and narration has a good tidbit, "Earth gets a total solar eclipse every 18 months on average, each one is only viewable by less than half a percent of Earth's surface."

Here's a reminder not to look directly at the sun. If you need a horror story to convince you, the AP ran a very helpful piece with one anecdote of a kid that made a preventable mistake. 13-year-old Joel Dixon's eyes were burned beyond repair when he looked at an eclipse in 1991. “We poked a hole in a little box, like a shoe box type of thing. You could still see it but it wasn’t good enough so briefly I looked up,” he said. His vision was yellow for two weeks and he suffered permanent damage.