The eclipse already started. Reporter yes, it did. Its about to start in the western part of the country. Give me five, you guys. You were amazing. Thank you so much for being with us. And craig, so many families like them, theyre going to experience this together in this stadium behind me. 15,000 people have poured into carbondale, illinois, and the local businesses here are ex attic. It is estimated the private sector in carbondale will gain almost 20 million just by the influx of tourists and people All Around The World who have come here to witness this astronomical event together. All right. Well come back to you in a moment, as well. My friend and colleague, jeff rossen, is standing by, not far from where we sit here. Hes in new york city, on the upper west side. New york city, by the way, expected to get an eclipse of about 70 . But heres the thing, jeff. That doesnt mean that folks should take viewing any less seriously, right . Reporter yeah, you can never look at the sun. Whe
looking up, those who are not looking up, don t have their glasses on. so we like to see that. we like to see folks appearing to take the necessary precautions. gordon petri, solar scientist, with the national solar observatory in boulder, colorado. he watched the eclipse from salem, oregon. he comes to us now by phone. and gordon, we keep hearing that an event like this is a bonanza for the scientific community. why is that? the reason is, it s the best to observe the lower parts of the solar atmosphere to show the most active and dangerous parts. so this gives us a unique look into the flares of the solar atmosphere that you can t quite engineer with telescopes yet. the eclipse, as you saw it there in salem, describe it for us.