Eclipse Megamovie Project: Be a Citizen Scientist!
Countdown: 05days:23hr:04min
The countdown is getting smaller and smaller to the big day! I leave for my total eclipse adventure in the very near future and can barely think about anything else. I’ve been taking advantage of the 3rd quarter moon to practice my eclipse photography (focusing and image bracketing). And, there is a new sunspot! It will hopefully hang around until Monday, giving everyone an excellent point to narrow in their focus.
I’ve been practicing, practicing, practicing as I am one of over a 1,000 volunteer photographers imaging the total eclipse for the Eclipse Megamovie 2017 project. It is a “first-of-its-kind citizen science project gathering scientifically valuable data from the total solar eclipse”! We photographers are spread out across the continental United States within the path of totality. We will be taking pictures of the Sun during totality and then uploading them. The Megamovie Team will then stitch all of the photographs together in sequence, from Oregon to South Carolina, creating one big Eclipse MEGAMOVIE!
Why is this project important? This will give scientists and the public a chance to see and study how the Sun’s corona changes over a few hours. Typical solar observatories, such as SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), use an occulting disk to block the light from the surface of the Sun making the Sun’s corona visible. However, due to limitations of these space borne observatories the occulting disks limit what portion of the corona may be observed. Since the Moon is the same apparent size as the Sun on our sky, it is the perfect size to block the light from the surface of the Sun and allow observations of the lesser studied lower portion of the corona. This high resolution movie will give scientists valuable data to study for years to come. And the folks organizing this (Google’s Making Science Team and Berkeley’s Multiverse Team) already have plans for a repeat Megamovie project for the 2024 total solar eclipse, which will provide another excellent data set for comparison.
How can you help?! The Eclipse Megamovie team want all the images/data they can get their hands on of totality, including cell phone images!!! If you will be in the path of totality, you can participate and become a citizen scientist by downloading their Eclipse Megamovie app for Android and IOS. There is even a practice mode to help you prepare for the big event! I hope you decide to be a citizen scientist, too!
As always, wishing everyone clear skies!
~Misty Carty, Ph.D.