Capturing the awe and wonder of solar eclipses through changes in our brainwaves: Piloting Project AWE.

INTRODUCTION

The totality experience is widely recognized as awe-inspiring, eliciting physical and emotional reactions that many find difficult to convey in words. Project Awe explores the feasibility of using biometric measures, specifically brainwaves, to objectively capture these reactions. A pilot study was undertaken during the annular solar eclipse (ASE) on October 14, 2023, in preparation for a future study during the total solar eclipse.

METHOD

This pilot project was conducted during the 2023 ASE from Uvalde County, Texas, where the moon obscured 91% of the Sun, creating the iconic ‘ring of fire’ effect for 4 minutes, 55 seconds. The lead investigator and five volunteers wore Emotiv Headsets with five sensors to record brainwave activity. Data was transmitted via mobile phones to a live project website to ensure continuous capture. Participants engaged in their desired eclipse observation and activities after a group calibration exercise. Intermittent clouds allowed for clear moments of heightened engagement, with annularity fully visible through light cloud. Data cleaning isolated 91,152 EEG data points for further analysis.

RESULTS

A single ‘Awe’ variable demonstrated significant variance (F = 30.331, p <.001) over the eclipse duration, enabling tracking of awe and frustration responses not just during annularity, but throughout the event. Even a cloudy annular eclipse triggered changes in brainwave activity indicative of awe across all participants.

DISCUSSION

This exciting project is the first to use biometric technology to capture the complex emotion of awe when engaging in solar eclipse observations. This valuable groundwork paves the way for future investigations into capturing our embodied reactions to other immersive and awe-inspiring astronomical phenomena, such as meteor showers, the aurora, and of course, the total solar eclipse experience.