Eclipse Megamovie 2024

The Sun’s corona – its outermost atmosphere – writhes and twists and throws off plumes of hot plasma. Measuring the motion of these plumes could help scientists understand the nature of the corona: what makes it so hot, and how it creates space weather. But these plumes can only be directly observed during an eclipse. Volunteer for Eclipse Megamovie 2024, and this April, you can help scientists answer persistent questions about the Sun’s corona and its plasma plumes.

Go to Project Website

AGES

18 and up

Division

Heliophysics

where

Outside on the eclipse path or online anywhere

launched

2023

What you’ll do

Are you on the path of totality (see map further down the page)? Do you have the required camera equipment (see equipment list below)? Join the Eclipse Megamovie photo team as an Observer or Science Team Alpha Recruit (STAR)!
Do you have experience coding in Python? Help with a machine learning analysis of the Eclipse Megamovie data after the eclipse!
Visit the website to learn more and to sign up.

Requirements

Time:
- STAR Data Collectors: 6 hours on eclipse day, 7 hours of practice & trainings
- Enthusiasts: 6 hours on eclipse day
- Machine Learning Analysts: 2 to 5 days of work
Equipment:
- STARs: DLSR (or mirrorless) camera, 300mm to 500mm lens depending on sensor size, tracking mount, tripod, and GPS location information.
- Eclipse Observer: DSLR (or mirrorless) camera, 300 mm lens, tripod, and GPS location information.
- Machine Learning Analysts: a web-connected computer
Knowledge: Project training is provided for STAR photographers. Python coding experience is required to participate in image processing.

Get started!

Learn about the roles and share your skills and interests in the Qualtrics volunteer survey. Please be sure to include as much information about your camera equipment as possible if you hope to participate at the STAR level.

A band of shade, outlined in red with a central blue line, crosses a true color image of the United States and the northern parts of Mexico and southern parts of Canada. This band indicates all the places from which the total solar eclipse will be visible on April 8, 2024. The band is approximately 125 miles wide. It comes ashore at the southerly end of the Gulf of California and crosses in an arcing diagonal across the United States from San Antonio, Texas, across parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine and then into New Brunswick, Canada. It crosses the Gulf of St Lawrence, then across central Newfoundland before moving out over the North Atlantic Ocean.

The red and blue band that arcs north from Mazatlán, Mexico to San Antonio, Texas all the way to to northern Maine and across Newfoundland, Canada marks the “path of totality” for the April 8 2024 eclipse. This is the path from which people on Earth can witness a complete eclipse of the Sun. Outside of this path, observers may see a partial eclipse, with the amount of the Sun being blocked by the Moon decreasing with distance from the path. Interactive map available at http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2024_GoogleMapFull.html

Credit: Xavier M. Jubier

Learn More

Read more about the science behind the project and what the team hopes to discover on the project’s website.

Eclipse Megamovie 2024 is part of the Heliophysics Big Year - follow that link to learn more about this yearlong celebration of heliophysics.

Eight different photographs of the Sun taken by various photographers. The photographs show varying levels of detail of the Sun's corona. The first four are black and white images of the Moon crossing in front of the Sun. A wide arc of white light on one side becomes smaller, is replace by a glow around the round moon, and then the small arc of white light appears on the other side. The fifth image shows detail of the corona as it moves away in a starburst of energy from the sun. The sixth shows an orange crescent of Sun beside the Moon that is eclipsing it. The seventh shows the churning lower corona in yellow boils and jets, just ringing in the Moon. The eighth shows a fully eclipsed Sun at the center of a starburst of white.

Rotating GIF of images made during a 2017 eclipse by volunteers and other photographers in the 2017 Eclipse Megamovie project. The processing of images in this way enables closer study of the Sun's corona, only properly visible in photographs during a total solar eclipse.

Images in GIF were created by:
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
NASA/Carla Thomas
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
J. M. Pasachoff (*2021), V. Rušin and the Williams College Eclipse Team, processed by R. Hubčík
NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA Goddard
George Holub