How people watched solar eclipses in the last century

Onlookerswill have an opportunity to view a rare astronomical event on Monday, Aug. 21: a total solar eclipse across the U.S.

Here's a look some of the methods people have used tocatch a glimpse of an eclipse not always safely from the beginning of the20thcentury to the present day.

Telescopes large and small

On Jan.14, 1907, people in Kazakhstan usetelescopes to view a solar eclipse from a snow-covered peak in the Tian-Shan mountains.

Bellows camera

Would-be astronomers in Paris gaze upward, aligning a bellows cameraand other optical equipment, including a telescope, towarda total eclipse of the sun on April 17,1912.

Goggles

This woman looks at a solar eclipse through goggles set in a mask at an unknown location onApril 8, 1921.

Nursing section

A group of nurses observe the June 29, 1927, solar eclipse through special dark glasses in Lancashire, England.

Protective film

Eclipse watchers squint through protective film as they view a partial eclipse of the sun from the top deck of New York's Empire State Building on Aug.31, 1932.

Water bucket

One of the lowest-tech ways towitnessthe eclipseis to fill a bucket with water and look at the reflection, whichthese children at the South Harringayschool in London didon June 30,1954.

• What the eclipse will look likewhere you are

Cardboard viewer

Ginnie Bailey reaches for a cardboard viewer held by her father, Robert Bailey,as the eclipsed sun begins to burn through a cloud cover that all but obscured a view of the total solar eclipse in Valdosta, Georgia, on March 7, 1970.

'Sun peep mask'

About 1,000 astronomers and spectators, including someone wearing a 'sun peep mask,'gathered at Observatory Hill in Goldendale, Wash., to watch a solar eclipse on Feb. 26, 1979.

Video monitor

And if you can't get outside, there's always video.These participants stayovernight at the Exploratorium in San Francisco to view the millennium's last solar eclipse, using high-speed internet connections and video links from a field station on the path of totality in Amasya, Turkey, on Aug. 11, 1999.