Today's total solar eclipse (August 21, 2017) has some interesting links to events of June 8, 1918 , the last trans-American total solar eclipse and the one chronicled by Leslie Peltier in his book Starlight Nights. Today's total eclipse belongs to the very same saros group as that of 1918. Thus, it rather closely mimicks the earlier event in both ground track and duration.
I re-read Leslie's account this morning documenting his recollections of that long ago eclipse with particular attention to the details he offered regarding his own observing circumstances and memories. He writes that in 1918 the Pacific Northwest had been anticipated to hold the greatest promise for clear skies, although today we often think of the region as prone to cloudiness. Nevertheless, today's eclipse weather forecast has the very same extremely favorable outlook across Washington and Idaho. Leslie goes on to say that from his home in Ohio the eclipse's greatest magnitude would be 75%...which happens to be the very same I am hopefully anticipating to see just a scant few hours hence myself.
But it is a further more unusual coincidence that specifically caught my attention. Leslie writes that as darkness fell on the evening following the 1918 solar eclipse he unexpectedly witnessed his first nova, situated in Aql and shining with the same luster as the nearby first magnitude star Altair!
Now, here we are 99 years later and the saros is bringing us another dramatically similar eclipse. At the same time, by odd coincidence, there is currently a slowly fading nova close by in Sct...situated a mere 15-degrees, or so, almost due south of where old V603 Aql, the brilliant nova of 1918's eclipse, today slumbers.
Incidentally, I was fortunate enough to observe both of these interlopers just last evening. 
J.Bortle (BRJ)
Charming and fortunate coincidences, indeed!
I hope you had a good eclipse. We had 86% here and it was much more profound than expected. In particular, the general cooling around the peak at 238pm was a surprise. The sky was severe clear and went to purple in the areas away from the Sun. Some clouds blew through around the peak and we could see the crescent through them without filters. It looked so white and beautiful! I did not spot Venus, though. We were just as happy as could be and we will never forget this eclipse! Glen
We managed to catch 1 minute + of totality on the northern outskirts of Kansas City, Mo. This event was for us, under the most difficult of circumstances, as there was severe weather all around the area, but we found a marginally clear spot just minutes before. This was as close to total disaster as can happen, but somehow we managed it. It was a fly in-out day trip from west coast for this sole purpose! Attached is a simple smartphone image of the display on my dslr of the mid-totality closer to the path edge than the center of the path (which was totally clouded out). Wish we had gone to Oregon ;)
Mike
We just returned from viewing the total solar eclipse, my first total. AMAZING!!! We met friends at the Indian Boundary Campground in Cherokee Nat'l Forest of SE Tennessee. We had clear blue skies for 3 days. Saturday and Sunday nights my friend and I set up our telescopes and held star parties. Sunday night we had over 200 people! Monday we set up our scopes with solar filters for the eclipse. There were thousands of people through the area. A good 200 showed up as we taught them about the eclipse, showed them the eclipse through the scopes, and then when totality hit, there were cheers like in a stadium. Across the lake at least a thousand people were spread out. We had so many compliments. This was my first total solar eclipse. Truely a once in a lifetime event.
Chris Stephan SET
The Peltier award was presented to me this year at the Astrocon 2017 meeting in Casper, Wyoming. I then went to Gurnsey State Park, WY, to be with other AAVSO folks to see totality (Sara Beck, John O'Neil, Elizabeth Waagen, Susan Oatney, and a few others). I had a very similar response to the eclipse as Chris Stephan describes (above).
Here is a somewhat distant picture of me getting the Peltier award at the Astrocon 2017 meeting.
https://astrocon2017.astroleague.org/
Rodney
Solar Section Chair
Adding to my post above, here are a few photos of eclipse star party Dick Lindblom and myself hosted. This was at the Indian Boundary Campground in the Cherokee Nat'l Forest in SE Tennessee. One photo shows me by my Explore Scientific 6" refractor. Another photo shows how dark it got during the eclipse. Such a happy and excited crowd. I'll post a few eclipse photos as soon as I get them. There was a professional photographer with us and he took them.
Chris Stephan SET
Here are 2 photos we made with DSLR and telephoto lens. First is near mid-eclipse, second just after totality ended showing the hole in the clouds we observed it thru!! These may have some scientific value, since it is unlikely many images are available around the time the shadow passed over this part of the country. (18:09 UT).
An interesting thing was observing how average people reacted to this event in this non-descript little shopping center we stopped in. Maybe a dozen people watched the totality, but also many went about their business like nothing was amiss! (One guy mentioned what a dark storm coming!) A few looked up AFTER it was over and asked me what happened!? So, its a fair evaluation of how the general public has knowledge or interest in astronomical things...A sad one at that.
This report is better late than never. I viewed the eclipse from Jefferson City, MO. I secured a hotel room in the path of totality in Kingdom City on July 1st (!) and made the 1200 mile drive over the two days prior to the eclipse. I watched the satellite photos all morning of the severe weather near Kansas City and as the partial eclipse started, I made the decision to dash south to Jefferson City to avoid possible clouds and arrived in a random parking lot there with about 45 minutes to go. There was still some high thin cirrus but much better than my former location. Totality was awesome I made almost every mistake in the book in my photography attempt but I made sure not to fiddle with the camera too much so as not to miss the spectacle. I was glad that I did. The corona shape was incredible and the red prominences were very visible to the naked eye. I saw so much more detail than I did at my last total eclipse in 1970. Environmentally, the temperature drop and the loud chorus of the cicadas that started a minute or so before totality was most impressive. It was an experience that I'll never forget.