While you were gawking up through your eclipse glasses today, the GOES-16 weather satellite was looking down — and watching the eclipse from 23,000 miles up.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) observed the eclipse through the eye of the GOES-16, one of the world’s most advanced weather satellites.

Positioned in geostationary orbit 23,000 miles above the equator in the Western Hemisphere, the satellite tracked the shadow of the moon across the continental United States – from Oregon to South Carolina. The eclipse images from the satellite were taken at a rate of one every five minutes beginning at the start of the eclipse around 11 a.m. Central Time and ending just after 3 p.m. Central. Stitched together, the images show the shadow of the moon tracking west to east across the continental United States.

The GOES-16 satellite is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and was launched into orbit Nov. 19, 2016, delivering “first light” images in January of 2017. UW-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center is one of the world’s preeminent meteorological satellite research centers, providing technical and research support to NOAA, NASA and others.