Pitt Shadow Bandits capture the Great American Eclipse

Janvi Madhani and Grace Chu, both undergraduates in physics and astronomy and part of the University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team, sit under a screen for detecting shadow bands the day before the Great American Eclipse in Barren Plains, Tenn. The team is one of 55 in the NASA Eclipse Ballooning Project that are releasing weather balloons along the path of the eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Ed Potosky, of Sarver, Pa., talks with Elizabeth and Will Clark about the solar telescopes set up by the University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team the day before the Great American Eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Janvi Madhani, an undergraduate in physics and astronomy, engineering student Carlos Vazquez and Aimee Everett, an environmental science and nonfiction writing major, all from the University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team, prepare for a test run the day before the Great American Eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team fill a weather ballon on the morning of the Great American Eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Paola Vazquez Gomez watches the partial eclipse on the side of the road in Barren Plains, Tenn. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
The University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team prepares to launch a weather balloon an during the beginning of the Great American Eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Engineering student Sinjon Bartel from the University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team holds onto a dish that collects a video stream from the balloon. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Will Clark, 7, looks at the partial eclipse through a telescope set up by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
People watch the eclipse as a twilight-like light can be seen on the horizon. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Grace Chu and Janvi Madhani, both Pitt undergraduates in physics and astronomy, watch the total eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
The total eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Russell Clark, PhD., watches the total eclipse. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Coen Clark, 9, and his sister, Riley, 5, watch the solar eclipse.(Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
A group watches the solar eclipse from under trees. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
David Turnshek, PhD. and Russell Clark, PhD., with the University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team retrieve their weather balloon from a tree in a remote area several miles from where they launched. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Russell Clark, PhD., leads his University of Pittsburgh Shadow Bandits team out of the field after retrieving their weather balloon payload from a tree. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)