Starship Asterisk*

With only six months to go before one of the most anticipated solar eclipses in a lifetime, the University of California, Berkeley, and Google are looking for citizen scientists to document and memorialize the event in a “megamovie,” and help scientists learn about the sun in the process.

The Eclipse Megamovie Project is seeking more than a thousand amateur astronomers and avid photographers to record the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse and upload their photos to be stitched together into a movie documenting the path of totality from landfall in Oregon until the moon’s shadow slips over the Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina. ...

The volunteers will be selected and trained by the Eclipse Megamovie Project team, but anyone with a smartphone can also contribute. The public will be able to download an app, expected to debut in April, to take time-coded photos of the eclipse and upload them for inclusion in a second, though much lower-resolution movie. The team also hopes to include raw images from any source in its archive. ...

Amateur astronomers and knowledgeable photographers who want to contribute to the high-resolution movie can sign up now at the Eclipse Megamovie Project for project updates and information about the application process. If selected to participate, they will receive an exclusive pin and recognition in the credits for the Eclipse Megamovie Project. They will also be able to register an astronomy club of their choice to receive a free package of solar viewing glasses. ...

Follow the Eclipse Megamovie Project on Facebook and Twitter.

The National Science Foundation to provide critical funding to nationwide eclipse data-gathering effort.

The Citizen Continental America Telescopic Eclipse project, or Citizen CATE for short, will be deploying at least 56 identical telescopes across the path of totality thanks to the financial backing of the National Science Foundation. The NSF is providing the largest contribution for the equipment needed by the project, and it will be used to help fund 30 CATE sites at academic institutions. With additional help from corporate sponsors Daystar Filters, Celestron, Mathworks and colorMaker, as well as over a dozen groups, schools and individuals, the network of CATE sites will span from coast to coast. Training for the project was funded by NASA.

The Citizen CATE program, which is run by the National Solar Observatory, aims to produce a 90 minute movie of the lowest layers of the solar corona during the eclipse - a region of the solar atmosphere that has always provided challenging for astronomers to image. ...

In an unusual twist, NSO will be donating the telescopes procured for the eclipse to the volunteer observing teams after the event. This will go a long way to creating a lasting legacy of astronomy and solar science across the nation.

If you would like to donate to the Citizen CATE project, or are interested in purchasing a telescope to become a CATE site, visit www.nso.edu/citizencate.

NSO: 2017 Solar Eclipse

Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) is pleased to announce generous funding from Google, a world-leading tech firm, in support of its project using the first total solar eclipse visible across the United States since 1918 as a springboard to implementation of an exciting nationwide science educational campaign.

Working in partnership with established national astronomy and educational organizations like the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Astronomical League, and Science Technology Advanced Resource, AWB is launching a major new initiative that will have a significant, long‐lasting impact on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. This educational campaign will focus on underserved communities across the US, leveraging the rare natural laboratory of the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse. ...

On August 21, 2017, a spectacular total eclipse of the Sun will grace the daytime skies across the continental U.S. along a narrow path from Oregon to South Carolina, while a deep partial solar eclipse will be visible from the rest of North America (at least 60% for the whole continent). This historic sky-watching event represents an unprecedented opportunity for STEM awareness and support of STEM education programs. Astronomical events capture the popular imagination, create excitement, and generate tremendous media attention. ...

Are you wondering what the total solar eclipse in late summer will look like from your patio? Or where to travel to get the best view of the eclipse?

A unique simulator produced by the Eclipse Megamovie Project -- a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, and Google -- has just what you need.

You can enter the ZIP code or name of your city or town and see an animation of how the Sun will move across the sky over a three-hour period -- sped up 1,000 or 4,000 times -- and how much of a bite will be taken out of the Sun by the eclipsing Moon. If you are lucky enough to be inside the path of totality, the simulator shows the eerily darkening sky that eclipse fanatics travel around the world to experience.

Although August’s total solar eclipse was over in minutes, analysis of the 50,000 photos uploaded to the Eclipse Megamovie website is a time-consuming job, so team leaders are asking citizen scientists for help.

The images have been put online at Zooniverse so that the public can scan and categorize them, a project dubbed Megamovie Maestros I.

Initially, volunteers are being asked to determine what the project’s photographers actually captured by identifying eclipse phases, diamond rings, Baily’s beads and other interesting phenomena.

The photos, snapped by thousands of recruited volunteers, have already been stitched together once by Google to create a first round extended view of the eclipse (aka the Megamovie). The Zooniverse project will help the team improve the Megamovie, and ultimately, better understand the behavior and mechanisms of the solar corona. Analysis of individual images will provide even more scientific data, according to the project team.

People who are more technically inclined are invited to dive into the project’s entire image database to see what they can discover or create (see instructions here). That could mean constructing a collage, spotting an unusual phenomenon or even making a better Megamovie. ...