NASA live streaming event | Calling All Radio Enthusiasts!
NASA Eclipse 2017 Live – Streaming Video of August 21 Total Solar Eclipse
The following information is courtesy of NASA:
https://www.nasa.gov/eclipselive
On Monday, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun. Viewers around the world will be provided a wealth of images captured before, during, and after the eclipse by 11 spacecraft, at least three NASA aircraft, more than 50 high-altitude balloons, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station – each offering a unique vantage point for the celestial event.
Live video streams of the August 21 total solar eclipse, from NASA Television and locations across the country, will be available at https://www.nasa.gov/eclipselive
12 p.m. EDT – Eclipse Preview Show, hosted from Charleston, South Carolina.
1 p.m. EDT – Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA.
This show will cover the path of totality the eclipse will take across the United States, from Oregon to South Carolina. The program will feature views from NASA research aircraft, high-altitude balloons, satellites and specially-modified telescopes. It also will include live reports from Charleston, as well as from Salem, Oregon; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Beatrice, Nebraska; Jefferson City, Missouri; Carbondale, Illinois; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; and Clarksville, Tennessee.
Calling All Radio Enthusiasts!
TCA “All Things Digital” columnist Robert Mazur, VA3ROM, has added a new page to his website for the upcoming “Great American Solar Eclipse 2017” on Monday, August 21. The webpage is geared towards Amateur Radio hobbyists.
Here is an excerpt from his page:
On August 21, 2017 a total solar eclipse tracks across America with the path of totality from the US northwest left coast southeast towards the right coast. Canadians will experience a partial eclipse of varying percentage of the sun covered up by the moon and the ionosphere may or may not experience increased radio propagation from the 40 metre band on down as day becomes twilight or night for a few minutes depending on your location (the lower the frequency the more pronounced the effect). Many commercial US AM radio stations, located in the path of totality, are having special Solar Eclipse broadcasts to see how far their normal daylight transmissions are extended by totality with the disappearance of the ionosphere’s D (absorption) layer during totality, which may increase AM radio propagation to near night time distances albeit for only a few minutes.
Maximum solar ionization for any given area (solar ultraviolet irradiation of the ionosphere) occurs between 2 to 3 pm local time. All regions in the Americas with mid-eclipse occurring during this time, but outside of totality, may experience brief increases in low band propagation if enough of the sun is covered and the ionosphere can cool down enough to allow free electrons to recombine with ions over your head (very high above). The US areas in the path of totality will definitely have markedly increased low band propagation with the brighter stars becoming visible!
The CG3EXP WSPR triband data beacon (onboard the Canada C3 Expedition ship Polar Prince) will be transmitting from the high Arctic at that time (west of Resolute, Nunavut) in the famous Northwest Passage and inside the Aurora Borealis ring. Its beacon transmissions may or may not be affected as they travel south into areas of increasing solar coverage. This is an Amateur Radio first to have a roving high Arctic WSPR beacon operating during the eclipse, along with hundreds of Amateur Radio and other hobbyist receiving and transmitting stations on the air for this historic event. There are thousands of websites dedicated to this one very important and significant solar eclipse, which will probably be the most monitored, recorded and analyzed in history, so I’ve only provided a handful of those sites specifically related to radio. Many of us are also amateur astronomers and we’ll be outside watching the eclipse as our robot receiving (or transmitting stations) silently do their work.
It would be great to have as many Amateur Radio operators and other radio hobbyists on air a few hours before, during and after the solar eclipse transmitting, receiving (or both) and streaming real-time propagation data to the WSPRnet (WSPR), or Reverse Beacon Network (Morse and RTTY) or PSK Reporter (PSK and JT modes). This invaluable data will be used by hobbyists, scientists and researchers (worldwide) studying radio propagation and the ionosphere.
For those interested in the non-radio aspects of the eclipse, if you have a PWS (personal weather station) feeding related weather web servers (Weather Underground, et al) or just a simple digital (or analog) data display with no Internet connectivity will work. Even a partial eclipse could have slight effects on air/dewpoint temperatures, relative humidty, wind speed and direction, which you can observe and record. For those in the US in the path of totality, day will become night with sudden and dramatic meteorological changes.
For more information please visit https://va3rom.com/va3rom_015.htm