Total Solar Eclipse: Google, University of California Partner to Document Aug. 21 Phenomenon
Almost a century after the last solar eclipse engulfed North America in darkness for a couple of minutes, Americans will experience a total solar eclipse once more on Aug. 21. As many are looking forward to the event, Google and scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have created a simulator that will let people see what happens to the sun when the eclipse happens.
The last time a total solar eclipse that passed across the USA from coast to coast was in 1918. As it took 99 years for the phenomenon to happen again, it is totally understandable why many are anticipating the date.
Unlike in 1918, though, the upcoming eclipse will be well-documented as Google and the scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have created a simulator that will enable the users to witness how the phenomenon happens in their respective areas.
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"There are lots of online animations of the 2017 eclipse, but you can't use them like ours to get a sense of the full experience, including your surroundings. Our simulation is closer to what one might experience in a planetarium show," Dan Zevin, leader of the project at Berkeley, said via a statement.
It has been learned that the simulator is part of the Eclipse Megamovie Project. In order to access it, viewers need to enter their ZIP code or the name of their town or city on the project's official website so that they can know what time it can be viewed and witness the animation of the total solar eclipse.
The Eclipse Megamovie Project draws a bead on getting the support of more than 1,000 amateur astronomers and photographers to document the event so that submitted images can be collated into a film that documents the path of the eclipse.
"The movie is a tool for scientific exploration. We'll be collecting this level of data for the first time, from millions of observers, and it will be a valuable archive... we don't know what we'll see or what we'll learn," University of California, Berkeley astronomer Hugh Hudson said.
The total solar eclipse will be visible in the states of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
