ABOVE THE PACIFIC OCEAN -- At 9:59 a.m. Monday, flying more than 38,000 feet above the water off Oregon's coast, passengers aboard Alaska Airlines flight 9671 were among the first to witness totality.
The "Great American Eclipse Flight" included an invite-only group of eclipse experts of astronomers and researchers who watched the sun go into darkness over the Pacific, 100 miles west of the shore.
The Boeing 737-900ER took off from Portland International Airport around 7:15 a.m. and flew two hours west so passengers could witness totality at 10 a.m. -- about 15 minutes before anyone viewing on land.
"It's a pretty interesting math problem," fleet captain Brian Holm said.
Holm had the help of eclipse experts to calculate how to intercept the moon's shadow, traveling at 4,000 miles per hour, with a plane moving at 520 mph.
Not only did the 100 people on board get to see the celestial event before everyone else on the U.S. mainland, but they were guaranteed clear skies and a view of totality from a different perspective.
From 38,000 feet passengers saw the shadow of the moon moving toward them in a cylinder of darkness, with blue skies to its left and right.
"Seeing the shadow is in itself a miraculous sight," said Joe Rao, lecturer and instructor at New York's Hayden Planetarium. "It's one of the great spectacles of a total solar eclipse."
It was Rao's 12th total solar eclipse.
"It never ever gets old because every solar eclipse I've seen is a little bit different," he said.
Rao says he's ready for a replay in 2024, when another path of totality slices across a different portion of the U.S.
Watch the video above to get a glimpse of what totality looks like from the skies.
--Jessica Greif