Eclipse Megamovie!

Image of Solar Eclipse 2017. A Composite blended stack of 24 images at exposures from 1/2000s to 1s, plus 3 Earthshine images at 5s. By Igor Ruderman.

Were you along the path of totality for the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017? If so, we hope you participated in the Eclipse Megamovie Project! We wanted as many photos of the eclipse as we could gather, and created a special upload site for the public to submit their photos (such as the beautiful composite image at left.) Here are three ways to watch the incredible results. First, a mini-documentary from Google: Chasing Totality: the Making of the Eclipse Megamovie. Next, The Crowd & The Cloud also made a road trip from Charleston SC to Dubois WY to hear from many of the enthusiastic volunteer photographers contributing to the Eclipse Megamovie project. And finally here is a 360 degree video capturing the event in virtual reality!

Goal of the Project

The primary goal of the Eclipse Megamovie Project is to produce a high definition, time-expanded video of the total solar eclipse that will cross North America from the northwest to the southeast on August 21, 2017. The Megamovie video is pieced together from images collected by citizen scientists at various points along the eclipse path. This  provides continuous datasets that far exceed what any one person could capture from a single location. 

Expected Science Discoveries

The Eclipse Megamovie Project will add a new dimension to our studies of the Sun’s faint outer atmosphere – the corona. By stitching together thousands of images taken along the path of the 2017 total solar eclipse, we will have a unique treasure-trove of information on how the corona changes over time. Radio-wave studies have allowed us to closely observe very rapid variations of the corona, but now we expect to study such processes directly using visible light and thus enrich our knowledge of the Sun’s dynamic atmosphere considerably. The data gathered via the Eclipse Megamovie Project will be made available publicly and are expected to allow scientists to analyze the Sun’s corona for many years to come.

The Eclipse Megamovie project is a partnership between Multiverse and Google's Making & Science Team. Learn more at the official Eclipse Megamovie website!