Eclipse Megamovie 2017

[PakledHostage]

Something to keep an eye on as August's total eclipse in the USA draws nearer:

https://eclipsemega.movie

Google, UC Berkeley, NASA, and others are teaming up to encourage people who view the August solar eclipse to share their videos and photos with the aim of making a two hour long movie showing changes in the Sun's corona in real time, among other things. They will be releasing an app and selling cheap tripods for phones so that people's phones can collect data "hands off" while they watch the eclipse.

[Green Baron]

Lucky you :-) I will not see it.

A little foretaste from last years eclipse. Most of you probably know that Air Alaska conducted a flight so that it met with the totality exactly at the right time. Sun is low and the shadow on the earth prolonged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBoa81xEvNA

 

Do your ears and brain a favour and switch off the speakers ...

Edit: buy solar film in quantity NOW because it may be sold out in July. It was the case 1999 in Germany.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Green Baron

[p1t1o]

At first, when I saw the thread title I was like "Oh god, they are going to make a disaster movie about an eclipse now? This is a new low."

This after reading about Gerard Butler's new..."film":

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981128/

“As a man heads into space to prevent climate-controlling satellites from creating a storm of epic proportions, his brother discovers a plot to assassinate the president.”

[Green Baron]

Seems to be very robust entertainment ...

... but meanwhile there are a lot of hobbyists and enthusiasts with appropriate equipment. We probably can expect something nice out of this. Though 2 hours might be a little extensive.

[PakledHostage]

5 hours ago, Green Baron said:

Edit: buy solar film in quantity NOW because it may be sold out in July. It was the case 1999 in Germany.

Interestingly (at least to me), the eclipse this August is the next eclipse in the same saros series as the 1999 European eclipse.

I think the idea behind the movie is to assemble photographic data showing how the Sun's corona changes during the roughly two hours that it will take for the eclipse to traverse the US from Oregon to Georgia. They are going to pick 1000 volunteers who have good cameras and who know how to use them to collect the high quality data. That data is intended to be used by scientists.

They are also going to collect people's cell phone videos and photos for... reasons. I am not sure what exactly. Maybe someone will do something along the lines of "Life in a Day" with them?

Edited March 10, 2017 by PakledHostage

[benzman]

9 hours ago, p1t1o said:

 

“As a man heads into space to prevent climate-controlling satellites from creating a storm of epic proportions, his brother discovers a plot to assassinate the president.”

Sigh.

 

[Rock3tman_]

Awesome! If all goes to plan some friends and I will be driving down to Tennesee to view the eclipse. We will also be sending up a weather balloon with a camera and try to see if we can capture the edge of the eclipse's shadow from 100,000 feet.

[Green Baron]

Wow, looking forward to this. Hope you post your images :-)

There are quite a few satellite images/clips of moon's shadow on earth's surface.

[Rock3tman_]

I've seen it before, but my friends have 3 balloon launches under our belt nd seeing this penumbra would be a real treat.

[PakledHostage]

Forgive me but I'm going to bump this thread...

They are still looking for more photographers to help out with this citizen science project. You don't need to be an expert photographer or astronomer to participate. You just need to plan on being within the path of totality and to have a DSLR or mirrorless camera, a tripod and at least a 300 mm lens. (ref. https://eclipsemega.movie/faq)

They are providing training via online webinars so I expect it will be a great learning opportunity. I am looking forward to my own participation in the project. I have created a script in Eclipse Orchestrator to take the requisite photos at the requisite times so I will be free to enjoy the eclipse while my camera clicks away automatically. Other guys are using Solar Eclipse Maestro and Backyard EOS to automate their photography so there are lots of options for automation. Still others are just going to trigger their camera shutters the old fashioned way.

Edited May 17, 2017 by PakledHostage
added more info about automation

[Zeiss Ikon]

On 3/10/2017 at 1:39 PM, benzman said:

Sigh.

 

More like SyFy.  I've wondered for years (decades, actually) how a network that produces such good series can produce such absolute stinkers of movies.  The only theory I've heard that makes any sense is that they found out the bad ones were profitable, and kept doing the same thing again -- hence three or four Sharknado films, etc.  Every now and then they stumble and make something watchable, usually with Ron Perlman, but generally, if it's a SyFy original film, it'll suck big time.

[Green Baron]

I'm astonished that they don't have a full team yet. 1000 photographers, scattered over the whole length of the US and maybe a few from abroad don't sound too many for me.

Have all those mobile plastic lenses replaced real photography apparatuses :-) ?

Or maybe those who will take pictures with decent devices are not planning to share them with google & co. *devilkerbal* ? Coronagraphic instruments need some preparation, time and effort ....

Edit: for anything astrophotography, be it day or night, based on tripod and dslr with a nice lens, i highly recommend a programmable timer, maybe cableless. That makes things much easier as you probably collect hundreds of frames in a short time for stacking, video or choice of the best ...

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by Green Baron

[PakledHostage]

On 5/18/2017 at 2:51 AM, Green Baron said:

I'm astonished that they don't have a full team yet. 1000 photographers, scattered over the whole length of the US and maybe a few from abroad don't sound too many for me.

Have all those mobile plastic lenses replaced real photography apparatuses :-) ?

I am not sure what to expect when it comes to  the eclipse, really? I keep hearing about how everything is booked out and small towns in the eclipse path are worried about being overwhelmed by the expected influx of visitors, but then they can't get 1000 people to volunteer to take pictures?

I'm think that I am well enough prepared in the event that there's mayhem, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be a non-event.

Edited May 20, 2017 by PakledHostage

[Green Baron]

Oh, sure it is impressive when it get's dark and cool during summer daylight. I was directly in the path of the totality 1999 in Karlsruhe, Germany. A cool wind was blowing just before and during dakening as the shadow helped the warm ground layer of summer air to rise up, but this was probably a local effect in the Rhein valley.

So set up your equipment, but don't forget to watch ;-)

 

[PakledHostage]

1 hour ago, Green Baron said:

I was directly in the path of the totality 1999 in Karlsruhe, Germany. 

I saw that same eclipse, but from near Augsburg. That is the only other eclipse that I have seen. What stands out in my memory was how quiet it got during totality. No birds were singing, it was dark, the street lights came on... Then to see the receding umbra passing over the towering cumulus clouds in the distance! Its speed and size was incredible. I remember feeling so profoundly small and I remember saying afterwards that I understood now why eclipses could be so terrifying to ancient people. Everybody, especially space minded people like us here on this forum, should experience at least one in their lifetimes.

[Zeiss Ikon]

Then again...

Through no fault of my own (I lived there), I was under the totality path for the eclipse of 1979.  I was sitting in Thermodynamics 101 at University of Idaho, and the professor had promised to let us go outside and watch at first darkening if there was anything to see -- but we were under 100% overcast.  Hundreds of people had cameras and even telescopes set up at the golf course parking lot (and this was long before even the Sony Mavica, so there were some long-roll motor drive SLRs present), and all anyone could see was that, over the course of a few minutes, it got dim, then genuinely dark, and a couple minutes later (totality was, as I recall, around four minutes where we were) it got less dark and the went back to normal overcast spring daylight.

Granted, August is less prone to that kind of weather than April, for most of the contiguous United States, but it's virtually certain that some folks who've spent their annual vacation budget (times two or three, in many cases) to get one of only twenty-four rooms in some podunk town forty miles from anywhere in the center of the totality path -- will observe nothing but atmospheric nebulae.

[PakledHostage]

For anyone who's interested, they've now made their Android app available on Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ideum.com.megamovie). It will be useful for anyone who intendeds to be within the path of totality as it displays times of the 4 contacts (C1-C4) down to the second, computed based on your actual location. There will be more features added as August approaches, too.

Edited June 28, 2017 by PakledHostage