Online simulator lets you know what the August 21st Solar Eclipse will look like where you are
If you're wondering what the total solar eclipse in late summer will look like in the California Central Valley, a new online simulator will let you do it with the click of a mouse.
A unique simulator produced by the Eclipse Megamovie Project - a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley and Google was just unveiled. Simply type in your zip code or city and state and the online tool lets you get a minute by minute look at what the big day will reveal where you are.
You will see an animation of how the sun will move across the sky over a three-hour period.
Additionally, 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. They're looking for 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.
According to UC Berkeley, no one on the ground will see the total eclipse for more than 2 minutes and 40 seconds, depending on how close they are to the center of the path of totality, the images collected by the Megamovie's volunteer team will be turned into a movie that includes images from the 90 minutes it will take the moon's shadow to cross the U.S.
Megamovie project to crowdsource images of August solar eclipse
The volunteers will be selected and trained by the Eclipse Megamovie Project team, but anyone with a smartphone can also contribute.
