Across most of North America on Thursday afternoon, folks blessed with clear skies could enjoy a beautiful partial solar eclipse. A lot of them seem to have taken pictures.

As the Earth, moon, and sun aligned, the moon's dark silhouette slowly covered part of the sun during the event. This offered amazing photographic opportunities to capture the cosmic game of hide-and-seek. (Related: "Partial Solar Eclipse Graces Skies on Thursday.")

Peekaboo through the clouds—this was the view of the eclipse from Bellingham, Washington:

The entire show took only a few hours to unfold, as the shadow of the moon crept across part of the sun's disk. At its greatest extent, the moon covered as much as 81 percent of the sun, a darkening