Participate In The Eclipse Megamovie

You’ll have the option to participate in webinars and/or read the written instructions prior to testing equipment and the skills we will teach you. Information on webinars and training materials will be found on the Media page, along with new information for the 2024 total solar eclipse.

For the 2024 Total solar eclipse, we are prioritizing working directly with people who have the following equipment and skills to gather the data:

• DSLR camera with a zoom lens of at least 300 mm
• Tripod
• Windows computer
• Cable to attached camera to the computer
• Ability to be within the path of totality on April 8th, 2024.
• Skills: attention to detail, ability to follow detailed instructions, eager to learn, willing to ask questions when uncertain about how to do something

In exchange for volunteering and attending trainings, 100 participants will receive an equatorial mount for their tripod-camera system created as a Do-it-yourself maker activity at SSU worth over $50, and monthly training sessions on how to use the mount and successfully photograph a total solar eclipse on a professional level. Participants will be able to use documents that we create and host to share information and photographs with other participants and volunteers.

If you sign up to take photographs of the solar corona on April 8th, 2024, we will ask you for the following:

• Practice shot: You’ll need to upload a test picture so that we can be sure you’ve got the steps down. We’ll show you how to do that. Totality does not last very long, and it is important to be adept at the very precise way the pictures must be taken in order to contribute to the scientific research.
• On eclipse day, you will put everything you have learned about eclipse photography into use! This is the big day, and we will do our very best to support you however we can. Start thinking about your plan for capturing the eclipse as soon as possible.
• After the moon’s shadow has left your area, you will upload your photos to the Megamovie website as soon as possible. Your photo will be shared with the world and will also be used to characterize transient plasma flows in the solar corona!

There will be more detail available soon, but for now we are looking for any volunteers who are proficient in Python code or implementation of Machine Learning (AI) in the arranging of photographs or other data. If you sign up to help analyze solar eclipse images for transient plasma flows in the solar corona, we will provide you with the competition information so you can access the python code and competition requirements.

We are also maintaining the process that was used in 2017 for volunteers who used DSLR cameras to photograph the eclipse. If you have a DSLR camera and tripod and the lens described here, you can join our Seasoned Photo Team. You are welcome to join our training sessions, but we will not provide support for your equipment. We are only able to support our 100 DSLR mount recipients in this way. For more information about what the 2017 process entails, please visit 2017.eclipsemegamovie.org.

This survey will be a great first step in finding ways for anyone interested in participating in the EM2024 project, whether you are a photographer, maker, coder, astrophysicist, seasoned eclipse chaser, or otherwise curious about it all. The survey will take around five to ten minutes to complete, and if you are applying for a mount please keep in mind that we have only 100 to give away. There are plenty of other ways to participate in EM2024, though, and we are committed to helping as many people as possible experience the majesty and wonder of a solar eclipse–whether in the path of totality or out, indoors or outside, or even in five years when we are still using the data we collect to learn more and more about the sun.