A Google Street View car drove right through the path of the 2017 solar eclipse

People look up at the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, as captured by Google Street View. Credit: Google

The most-viewed eclipse in history had an unexpected witness: A Google Street View car drove right to the edge of totality, offering a surprising celestial treat for visitors scoping out the event in Maryland Heights, Missouri.

The intrepid car captured the darkened sky, streetlamps flickering on and even skywatching pedestrians on the vehicle's travels through the path of the 2017 total solar eclipse in August. Michael Kentrianakis, an eclipse chaser and member of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Eclipse Task Force, told Space.com about the eye-catching view this past weekend at the 2018 Northeast Astronomy Forum (an annual gathering of thousands of skywatchers in Suffern, New York) after seeing reports of the view circulating online.

"I guess those Google vans photographing every road on the planet don't stop for nothing," Kentrianakis wrote on Facebook. "Not even during the night of a total solar eclipse."