Yes. Total solar eclipses are a good way to observe the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, from almost the Sun's surface to quite far out. We can do that with other kinds of instruments on the ground and in space, but nothing is quite like a total eclipse. People use them to observe structures in the corona and try out new kinds of instruments. The down side is that they are only a few minutes long, are often far away, and they might be covered up by clouds.

Terry