Abstract

The total solar eclipse of April 8^th, 2024 generated broad public interest and provided opportunities for solar experiments. I participated in NASA’s SunSketcher citizen science experiment by producing a time-series of images during totality at the University of Toledo using the SunSketcher app. SunSketcher aims to measure the Sun’s size and oblateness to better understand internal solar dynamics. This short paper details research methodology and comments on the beauty natural cosmic wonders like solar eclipses evoke. Citizen science allows the community to generate datasets and solve problems individual teams could not do alone, highlighting the collaborative and social nature of science. More researchers should utilize citizen science methods for their experiments.

1. Introduction

Total solar eclipses provide great opportunities for professional and citizen scientists to conduct solar experiments and for educators to promote science literary and advocacy among the general public. Eclipses inspire great public interest; thousands of people flock to the path of totality to see it live while millions more view the spectacle online or on television. Eclipses generate social media buzz and become cultural phenomena as evidenced by myriad art, songs, news articles, and stories told about them in many multimedia formats (see Figure 1).

The total solar eclipse of April 8^th 2024 was unique for two reasons: (1) the path of totality crossed the entire contiguous United States and (2) it occurred near the solar maximum, allowing viewers to perceive solar prominences which are not always visible with the naked eye during totality (Carter, 2024). The solar maximum also allowed viewers to enjoy a larger, more visible solar corona (Bartels, 2024).

This unique combination of factors, along with general interest all eclipses inspire, gave scientists plenty to study.

2. SunSketcher

SunSketcher is a NASA-funded experiment led by Gordon Emslie (Principal Investigator) and colleagues to study how the Sun’s shape and size affects solar flow patterns. Understanding these flow patterns will allow them to better understand the Sun’s internal dynamics and better predict solar activity during future solar cycles (Emslie et al., n.d.).

They will measure the Sun’s spatial resolution by analyzing many thousands of millisecond-order temporal images of the Sun when “Baily’s Beads” occur near the end of totality across the entire eclipse path.

Generating such a gargantuan amount of data requires many people, so they asked the general public to help them collect data: anyone with a smartphone only had to do two things: (1) download their app to collect the data and (2) be in the path of totality. That’s it. No PhD needed, no advanced mathematics and physics knowledge required. Use phone, look at Sun during totality – easy!

First-analysis results have been published at the 244^th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in June 2024 (Emslie et al., 2024). Further information can be found on the project’s website (sunsketcher.org).

3. My Eclipse Experience as a SunSketcher

While browsing the internet for eclipse-related media, I found out about the SunSketcher project about three weeks before the eclipse. I immediately decided to participate. This added an extra level to the overall excitement I already had anticipating the eclipse. Not only could I view the totality in-person for the first time (in 2017, I saw a spectacular partial eclipse from Louisville), but I could participate in citizen science for the first time as well.

I decided to journey to Toledo, Ohio, the nearest major city to me in totality. I stayed at a hotel the night before equipped with my phone for data collection, my brother’s phone (he generously allowed me to take his so I could take personal pictures of the eclipse), a small tripod to correctly orient my phone during data collection, and eclipse sunglasses for partial eclipse viewing (see Figure 2).

The observations were performed on the campus of the University of Toledo. I chose the location because other candidate locations, like the Toledo Zoo, were too crowded (the downtown area experienced great overflow traffic due to a surge of eclipse tourism). The campus was full and vibrant: food trucks and music tents created a lively atmosphere filled with many people eager to experience totality. I toured the campus grounds but mostly stayed by my car on a campus parking lot. I enjoyed great views of the partial eclipse for about two hours.

Totality began at 3:12pm EDT and ended at 3:14pm EDT. I knew exact timing based on my location because of a dynamic open-source mapping tool created by Xavier M. Jubier, which provided eclipse start times, end times, magnitude, and more for all positions in totality superimposed on Google Maps (http://xjubier.free.fr) (Jubier, n.d.). The SunSketcher app also provided totality start/end times after it knew my phone’s geolocation, making third-party software optional.

About five minutes before totality, I affixed my tripod on my car’s roof and pointed the attached phone’s camera towards the Sun with the app running (it automatically produced images at totality). The experiment was successful: images were sent to their central server and saved locally on my phone.

4. Reflections

Viewing totality created sensations of awe and amazement. The eclipse was beautiful—the Moon looked like a huge black pupil in the sky; the darkness gave the surrounding clouds a sharp contrast (none obscured the eclipse). Ambient temperature cooled noticeably but not considerably. The solar corona was bright, and I do not recall seeing any solar prominences or Baily’s Beads (I wasn’t looking at the Sun during the final moments of totality). Many people ooh’d and ahh’d and cheered and clapped as totality occurred. “Oh my God!” I exclaimed many times as I switched between viewing with my naked eyes and taking pictures with my brother’s phone (see Figure 3). The entire community gathered on campus witnessed and enjoyed together an otherworldly event that astonished everyone.

The drive home was marred with heavy traffic, but I left Toledo with a newfound appreciation for nature and rare cosmic wonders few are privileged to see in person. I called my friends and family and excitedly recounted my experiences to them (perhaps to their annoyance after three consecutive days of bringing it up at any opportunity). Many of them shared their pictures and stories. I consumed many articles in the aftermath of the eclipse and declared I would absolutely attend future eclipses elsewhere in the world. I now understand why people travel the globe to witness the majesty total solar eclipses bring for those brief moments that large dark shadow crosses over Earth.

I also left Toledo with a newfound appreciation for citizen science. I felt a sense of responsibility and pride, that I was “doing my part”, however small, in advancing science while enjoying the event.

Science benefits from horizontal growth and need not be cloistered away by professionals in lab coats and regulated solely by the binding red tape of governments and grants. The public at large has a vested interest in the science its society produces and, therefore, should be active participants at all stages of scientific development.

For SunSketcher in particular, the unique convergence of smartphone technology and social media buzz surrounding the eclipse allowed citizen science to be generated at large scale. Never before had so many people been able to achieve astronomical observations simultaneously with common technology. The experiment should be seen as a case study which highlights the serendipity and possibilities that bottom-up, distributed-input approaches can produce in a technology-driven world, a moment unprecedented in the history of science.

5. Conclusions

The SunSketcher project illuminates the value citizen science provides to the overall scientific community and the public at large. Large datasets for experiments like this are not possible without community involvement. Science, a social enterprise created for the enjoyment and advancement of human interests, benefits from community-wide collaboration aimed at solving problems that could not be solved without distributed input. Total solar eclipses further generate broad excitement which fuels citizen science. Analogous projects in other fields should adopt and adapt from methodology used by Emslie and colleagues to continue large-scale citizen science endeavors.

Acknowledgements

I thank all who participated in the SunSketcher experiment.